The Founder's Inheritance
by Dsteele2010
Summary: Harry is depressed after losing his godfather when someone unexpected turns up to help him. Can he go on to become the leader everyone needs him to be? Can he survive long enough to settle down and have a family like he has always wanted? Canon compliant through Order of the Phoenix. Founders heir story, Soul Bonding, and more! Super!Harry, Godlike!Harry, Warning! Explicit Content
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One:**

 **Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Harry Potter. That would be J.K. Rowling. I just like to take her characters and plot and play with them.**

Harry Potter sat on his bed, depressed as he could be as he stared at Hedwig's cage in apathy. Harry Potter was not normal. First off, he was wizard. Not unnatural enough, he also was known as The-Boy-Who-Lived. This was because he somehow survived at age one, what others had not survived at age one hundred. He had survived the killing curse, the very same that had killed his parents moments before. Of course, this was not enough either for some reason. No, he had survived the killing curse from one of the most powerful wizards in the world. It was a man, or creature as Harry thought of him, known to the world as Tom Riddle a.k.a Lord Voldemort. So far by age 15, Harry had met Voldemort almost every year since turning 11. This meant he had faced Voldemort down what was now 5 times and survived the encounters. Most of that was through luck though, and it seemed that his luck had finally run out.

The most recent encounter had been little over a month ago now, in June. It was July now, and Harry's birthday was little more than a week away. In June, he had led a group of fellow students he had trained into the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. They had met resistance in the form of Lord Voldemort's followers known as the Death Eaters. The death eaters had been held off, just barely, until help had arrived from the Order of the Phoenix, the Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore's group dedicated to resisting Voldemort, including one Sirius Orion Black. This was Harry's godfather, and one of the last two living links to his parents. Sirius had died in the fighting, protecting Harry and his friends from Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort's top lieutenant.

Harry knew it was his fault, especially after hearing the prophecy from the headmaster directly after the incident. He winced as he remembered his momentary loss of control in said man's office. He had been spending the whole of his summer thus far in total misery at this loss. He also felt terrible for all of his friends who had been hurt in the adventure as well. He was their leader, and as such he should have known better than to walk into such an obvious trap.

In pain, and angry at being sent here to his aunt and uncle once more, Harry walked out of his room, downstairs, and out the door into the sunlight. He had been told to stay indoors as much as possible but consequences be damned if he had to be kept in that house all summer. As he was leaving, he passed by Moody, who happened to be on watch at the time under his invisibility cloak. Moody immediately followed, casting a silencing charm on his wooden leg as he did so. Harry walked all the way to the nearest restaurant, and sat outside. As he had not grabbed any muggle money before coming back this year, he declined a menu stating he merely needed a place to sit a moment.

Moody watched him very carefully for a few moments while having an internal debate. They were to watch Potter, and give him personal space at the same time. That was the orders. They did not preclude conversation or anything, so Moody decided to step in for a moment. A friendly face in these times may help the boy, and if not Moody would happily disappear back under the cloak once more and leave him in peace. He walked to the alley nearby and made sure no one was watching before taking off his cloak and stuffing it into one of his robe pockets. He walked back out and over to Potter, watching the kid's eyes wander over him. They tightened for a moment in hesitation, but then brightened welcomingly.

As he sat down he ignited the conversation by saying, "Well, so much for staying indoors eh, Potter? You don't seem surprised to see me so I assume you knew if the guard regulations this summer. Tell me lad, are the muggles treating you alright?"

Harry thought for a moment before he spoke. "How am I to know you are actually Alastor Moody, and not someone sent by Voldemort to get me to tell him the location of my house?"

Moody watched the boy covertly point his wand at him under the table with his magical eye. "Very good, Potter. Constant Vigilance!" Moody said, pleased that the boy showed common sense in these times. "Very well, you want proof? I am Alastor Moody, ex-auror, member of the Order of the Phoenix headed by Albus Dumbledore, and you are the son of Prongs."

Harry looked at Moody carefully before accepting the answer and stowing his wand away inside his robes once more. He looked around for a moment to ensure they had privacy, and leaned across the table towards the older man. Moody did the same, with the exception of his magical eye, which rolled in all directions ensuring no threat surprised them. Harry spoke in a quiet tone.

"Sorry Moody you can't be too careful these days. Yes, the headmaster told me of the guards and when they would be trading positions. My aunt, uncle, and cousin have all been ignoring me mostly, which is better than the usual actually. How have things been with the order?"

"Better than usual? You may have to explain that to me Potter. As for the Order, we haven't really done a whole lot of useful things lately, aside from guarding you of course."

So, Harry went on to explain what he meant by "usual". He told Moody of the abuse over the years, affirmed that the headmaster knew of it, and also in a spur of the moment topic, told him of the prophecy. He found Moody to be patient and a good listener. He asked questions in the appropriate moments, and wore a passive expression the whole while, with merely a glint of anger in his eyes. Harry found himself opening more and more as hours went by unheeded, telling Moody about his mood recently, his grief over Sirius, his worries over the summer, next year, and the future, and most importantly, his ever-decreasing self-confidence.

Moody listened quietly for the most part on his end. He was horrified and angry all in one at the muggles' treatment of the boy, and even more upset to learn that his old friend Albus knew of it all. He immediately decided that a confident and powerful leader was what they needed, and from the way Potter talked, it did not seem he was all that sure of himself at the moment. The grief was understandable, but prolonged due to having no outlet. He resolved to help the boy any way he could, and made sure to point out that the boy needed to rest, eat, and keep his spirits up in the first place if he wanted to be healthy enough to make a difference in this war. He also thought more privately that he agreed on the fact that due to the circumstances, Potter needed better training than he currently had. He would do his best to find a way to get him that.

Moody told Harry to give him a couple days, and he would try to figure out a couple things. Harry readily agreed, and accompanied Moody back to his house, where he was seen safely inside. Once inside, he immediately grabbed a few rolls and some juice from the empty kitchen before making his way back to his room. As he ate, he cleaned up the room until it was spotless and pulled out a few of his schoolbooks. To pass the time he would read and study all the old and newer schoolbooks until he had them memorized or was interrupted.

/

 **Moody POV**

Moody watched Harry go inside. He knew the conversation had made Potter somewhat happier and livelier than before. Now, he would do exactly as he promised and find a way to help Harry. He waited until 6pm when Mundungus showed up to relieve him. The idiot was piss drunk and probably drugged as usual, but at least he was there. Moody apparated off, and appeared at the gates of Hogwarts. He walked all the way up the drive to the school and straight to the Headmaster's office. Knocking twice on the door, he waited for a response.

"Enter," came a voice from just inside the door. Moody complied and entered to find a smiling Albus Dumbledore awaiting him behind his desk. Dumbledore gestured to the seat in front of the desk and Moody sat heavily, taking a moment to clear his thoughts and focus.

"My dear old friend, you seem as though all the cares in the world lie on your shoulders. Tell me what it is that is bothering you. I am most curious." Dumbledore said to him kindly.

"Well sir, it's like this. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I have a few questions that I need answered. It has to do with young Potter." Moody said respectfully, choosing his words with care. Dumbledore, on the other hand, sat back heavily and rubbed his eyes tiredly. Moody wondered at the sudden change, wisely keeping quiet for the moment. The old man had been his friend for many years and he would respect him until he no longer commanded the respect shown.

"I knew this day would come." Albus spoke suddenly, looking up at Moody. "I knew it especially after telling the boy the prophecy. I am assuming that since you are here, you spoke to young Mr. Potter, and heard a great many things he could tell you. It is after all, the only way you would be here to start asking questions. I will share what I know with you old friend. Perhaps you have a better insight as to how I can rectify things. You must understand before I begin however, that everything I did, I did out of love for him. I did not want any of this to trouble his life when I knew all he wanted was a normal life. If he had known any of this, he would know just how "normal" his life really was supposed to be. He would have been in danger much sooner, and had no chance at a happy life."

Moody nodded his acceptance and prepared to broaden his views a bit. He promised himself that although it seemed as if he would not like what he was going to hear, he would take everything into account before taking his stance on everything. Albus conjured a tea set for them, along with some biscuits. After pouring a steaming cup for the both of them, something Moody only allowed with Albus, the old man sat back and began his tale.

"I guess what I should start with, is that you should know I am Harry's grandfather on his mother's side. His mother was pureblood, and a Dumbledore. We changed her last name and blood status to protect her while Grindelwald was running unchecked. James was the only one who knew besides her mother and I of course. Her mother died in the last war. You remember the prophecy I told you long ago. I know we had speculated long and hard about "the power he knows not" but I actually knew the answer." Here the older man paused a moment to gather his thoughts. He then forged on.

"Harry is descended through the Potter family line from Godric Gryffindor himself. I know that anyone who studies ancient lines such as the goblins will know this, but only I and the goblins will know the next part. Mr. Potter is also the heir of Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. This makes him the heir of all four founders of Hogwarts. This is because, as I said, through the Potters he is related to Godric Gryffindor. As a Potter he is also related to Salazar Slytherin as the last living blood cousin. Voldemort claiming to be Slytherin's heir is nonsense. I am a direct heir of Rowena Ravenclaw, and as such so is Harry. I never took the inheritance ritual, so it is unclaimed. The Helga Hufflepuff line comes from our side as well. Although I am Ravenclaw's direct descendant, Helga Hufflepuff's son married one of Ravenclaw's daughters, thus making me a cousin. I and Harry are the last living cousins in that line also. Since I have never underwent an inheritance ritual, Harry is able to when he comes of age. This ritual had never been done in the last thousand or so years, and so I am unsure as to what will happen but I do know that it has something to do with the prophecy." Dumbledore continued. He took a sip of his teas thoughtfully before looking into the eyes of one extremely shocked Alastor Moody.

"I agree with you and the boy on the idea that he needs further training Alastor, and had decided to provide him with that this year. I had not intended to let this out until Harry came of age, but events lately have led to less than desirable circumstances, and I am afraid Harry will not stand to be kept in the dark any longer. I need your advice old friend. Where do I go from here? Powerful and intelligent I may be, but I never claim to be all knowing." Here, the older man sat back in his chair with a desperate sort of air about him. He gazed at Moody with something akin to hope in his eyes, and Moody knew that the esteemed headmaster really was at the end of his tether.

Moody thought for a moment about it. He was extremely shocked, yes, but if you thought through the entire life the boy had been through, it all made sense in a way. No one except someone very powerful could survive all that he had. Although inexperienced now, and still growing in power levels, the boy could be a serious threat with time. They needed to harness that. He spoke, measuring each word before he let it fall from his tongue.

"Potter was powerful I knew, but I did not know to this extent. I do not agree with your reasons for withholding this information, but I do understand them. Now, they are misplaced. Your first step needs to be filling Potter in on all that you just told me. The boy isn't dumb. He knows something is special about him, but not what. He could help us, and that leads to my second point. We can help him, but we should no longer control him. He has not been a child in a long time, despite his age. Our main priority now is to help him along his way. Telling him what we know is a good start, and from there perhaps we can find a way to ensure he is safe, properly trained, and happy. That said, the very next thing to do it removing him from where he is. The blood wards are powerful, but not nearly worth the abuse he goes through. I assume you thought they would protect him, but none of us thought about in home abuse as an obstacle. Moving him somewhere he is happy will go a long way toward ensuring his happiness and loyalty to us. We need to support his decisions and ideals, not crush them. It's time to be friends and family, not just protectors." Moody finished speaking, never once breaking eye contact with his old mentor during his impassioned speech. He may not have had much to do with the boy, but his parents and godparents made great aurors, and his mother made an excellent coworker. Moody wanted to get to know Harry Potter a bit better, and he had a few ideas as to how. First though, he would keep his word and try to help him out of the situation he found himself in currently. He paid closer attention as Albus leaned forward in his chair to look at him closer.

"Very well, Alastor. I believe your ideals are worth a try and the best we can do given the circumstances. We do it your way. Please, give an old man a night to rest. As soon as you are on guard duty in the morning and see Mr. Potter awake, bring him here to me." Dumbledore said. His posture and the way his expression was set spoke mountains of pressure relieved from his shoulders. Moody surmised that the old man really was upset at having had to hide everything from Harry for so long, and coming clean and getting to know his grandson as a person would help.

Alastor Moody nodded, and finished his tea before departing. As he walked out of the school and to the apparition point, his last thought was, _"Hold on lad. Give me one more day, and I promise you I'll have you out of there and in a better place. Good thing too. You couldn't deal with those muggles along with all your fun new responsibilities you will be learning!"_

 **Author's Notes:**

 **I know it is probably like a lot of Founders stories out there, but hopefully the attitude of Moody and Dumbledore caught some off guard. I wanted a manipulative Dumbledore story, but one where he cooperates and manipulates in equal amounts seemed better. I haven't seen many stories like that out there, so hopefully this turns out well. What did you all think of Moody being a main part of the story?**

 **Please Read and Review. I enjoy constructive criticism, so long as it helps. It also helps to know what you all enjoy in the story, and what you all want to see in the future. I do cater to such reviews where possible. Feel free to private message me with comments, questions, and advice as well. I will respond to all that I get as soon as I am able.**

 **All of that said, I do not enjoy haters. If you dislike the story, that is fine, don't read it. I am by no means claiming to be an amazing author, and mainly write for the fun of it. Thanks to all who do read and review however, that is what makes writing the story worth the effort.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

 **Harry's POV:**

Harry woke up the next morning with his face pressed against a book. That was odd, considering he would have sworn that he had put everything away before falling asleep. It was a very uncommon thing for Harry to fall asleep reading if you asked his friends. What they did not know was that Harry actually liked reading and learning. He was never allowed to beat Dudley at anything, and do in school he had acted accordingly. He had recently decided he did not care anymore, and would do his best regardless. This was a direct result of both his conversation with Moody, and his ever-lessening give-a-shit meter, which had been steadily decreasing since Sirius' death recently. He had finally hit the point of losing so much that he snapped a bit.

There was a knock on the door just as Harry was descending the stairs. He was nearly knocked over as his great lump of an uncle shoved his way past him to answer it. As his uncle opened the door, Harry's eyebrows shot up. There, on the doorstep, was Alastor Moody. Moody walked in, glaring at his uncle menacingly.

"I need you to come with me lad." Moody said to Harry, his normal eye moving to look at him while the magical one stayed trained on Vernon.

"That ruddy boy isn't going anywhere! I don't want any of you _freaks_ on my doorstep anymore! Get off my property or I'll call the police!" Vernon shouted in Moody's face, catching Harry by the chest as he moved to pass him and shoving him back roughly.

"Is that so, Dursley? You are going to be the one foolish enough to try to stop us, are you?" Moody asked him in a quiet voice. While he normally left most muggles alone, he also believed in doing whatever it took to accomplish a goal. This was a personal goal, making it all that much more important. Plus, he did not believe for a moment that whatever he could do to them, they would not deserve it. He drew his wand out slowly; making sure Vernon saw him do it.

"You can't do this. Your government would be on top of you instantly." Vernon said, showing that there was in fact a brain between his ears. What he had not counted on however, was the slow smile spreading across Moody's face.

"We are at war, Dursley. Do you know what that means? It means that as an auror, I have the power to do whatever I deem necessary. Right now, I am starting to lean toward the idea that cursing you is necessary. So, move. This is your last chance." Moody smiled gruesomely, pointing the wand in Vernon's face.

Vernon started to sweat slightly before pushing Harry towards Moody. Moody smirked and side-stepped to allow the boy to pass him. When he had done so and had turned, he found Moody still pointing his wand at Vernon's face. As he looked him over carefully, he spoke in a calm, quiet tone.

"You know, Dursley, I never did like a lot of people in my life. The ones I hated the most were cowards, weaklings, idiots, and bigots. You represent all of those traits in one person. Potter was put here for his own _protection_. You are supposed to be his _family_. Instead of treating him as such, he has only ever known abuse, cruelty, and belittlement at your home. I'm glad. Do you know why? Because it turned him into a wonderful young man. A leader, as well as a friend. He helps everyone he meets, and would lay his life down for any he cares for. I'm glad you showed your true colors to him. I'd hate for him to waste those qualities on someone so unworthy as your family. For that, and more, I'll leave you a little gift to reflect on your actions." Here, Moody paused before glaring hatefully at the man in front of him. A purple hex shot out of his wand at the man, hitting him squarely in the face.

Vernon howled in pain as boils erupted all over his face and began popping, oozing yellow pus as they did. Moody spoke once more, his voice gleeful at the other man's discomfort. "Don't worry Dursley; it wears off in a day. If you ever harm, plan to harm, or cooperate with anyone else trying to harm Potter in any way, it comes back, and this time it will last months. Come, Potter. We are needed elsewhere."

Harry followed as Moody stomped off out of the yard. He was barely able to keep in his laughter at his uncle's plight. Harry had never been hexed with boils, but he had heard it was very painful. Moody seemed to be pleased with himself as he came to a stop at a corner. When he did stop, all emotion drained from his face and was replaced with seriousness. He looked down at Harry for a moment before speaking to him carefully.

"Harry, by now you know a lot has been kept from you. Today you find out everything we can tell you. I only ask you do your best to keep calm while we do. There are reasons you weren't told, and while I do not agree with them, it is best to not fight amongst one another." He said in a low voice. Harry looked up at him directly in the eye before speaking.

"Sir, I was told that before I left for the summer that I would be told everything." Harry tried to keep an accusatory tone out of his voice as he spoke. "I understand we do not need to fight amongst each other, but if it needs to be said, or if it is severe enough, I will not hold back. If it could affect my life in any way and I should have been told earlier, I will not be happy. I deserve the truth of my own life. If that is the case, I will work with him, but never again will I work for him."

Moody looked at him carefully before nodding. He did not have much choice in the matter, and to be honest he agreed with the boy. It was his life, and he should have known more about it than others, not the other way around. He took the boy by the shoulder and apparated off to Hogwarts gates, not sure if he was eager for the conversation that would take place or not. They arrived at the gates and were greeted by Albus himself. After greetings were exchanged, they headed inside the gates and up to the school. Albus led them directly to his office, and they all took a seat, staring at the headmaster patiently.

The headmaster looked in his lap a moment and collected his thoughts before beginning. He began by saying, "Harry, the only thing worse than a fool, is an old fool. I have continued to lie to you in the hopes that you would never have to learn the truth. I was trying to give you a life that you wanted, a happy one. I realize now that you would have been happier just knowing everything going on around you. I hope, after this, you can forgive an old man for his mistakes. If, after all is told, you feel able to accept my help, I have experience in these matters and can help you learn about them."

From there Dumbledore began the tedious task of relating everything he had told Moody, to Harry. Harry sat listening impassively as everything was said. Well, on the outside he was impassive. On the inside he was completely floored with shock and anger. Dumbledore told him about the founders, his mother, about his heritage from Sirius, and about him being his grandfather. Then, the old man had the audacity to actually smile as if all would be well now. Harry started trembling, and Dumbledore took it as him being overwhelmed and happy.

Harry immediately glared at the old man before standing up slowly. His fists clenched at his side, he automatically began trying to control his body so he did not throw things like last time. "Do you mean to tell me I had a living family member this whole time, and you never told me?" Harry asked him in a dangerous tone. Seeing Dumbledore about to speak, he beat him to the punch.

"Do you honestly believe that I never would have found out? I am in the thick of this old man! It would've helped to know I had all these powers ready to unlock! I could have saved my friends from injury, I could've beat Voldemort when he was weak from regeneration! I could have saved Sirius!"

"Harry, I know you are still hurting from the loss, but if you allow me to help you there is every chance I can teach you occlumency to help shield from this grief." Dumbledore started before Harry cut him off again. Tears were dripping down the young man's face.

"NO! I will not let you continue ruining my life. Every time I trusted you to make a decision, something bad happened. Why, if you are as powerful as they say, couldn't you stop the bad things from occurring? I do not and will not believe that Quirrel had you fooled. I don't believe that the Sorcerer's Stone could not have been more protected than allowing an 11 year old to get to it. In second year, you knew Hagrid was innocent, but you allowed everyone to believe he and I were the heir. You can speak Parseltongue, and if a 12 year old can figure it out, I am sure you had it figured out as well. You knew Sirius was innocent, and that the fake Moody was going to kidnap me. It was your fault! You knew Snape would hurt me during those "lessons" last year but you made me attend anyway! Why? I don't even care to know anymore. I'm done with you. You and your bloody order can go to hell." Harry finished his rant by walking out and slamming the door.

The two men sat in silence for a moment before Moody cleared his throat. "He's right, Albus. You should have told him before. I'm not sure what you were thinking, but I hope it changes before it is too late. Until then, I resign from the Order until Harry and you can reconcile. I'll be guarding and helping him in the meantime." He left, stumbling upon Harry as he did. He was surprised at how in control of himself the young man was, and spent a few moments waiting for him to speak. Harry finally did so, closing his eyes a moment beforehand.

"I'm sorry Moody but he had it coming. He has tried to run my life for too long. If you have time, could you take me by Diagon Alley? I need to stop by the bank to get some gold exchanged to muggle money so I can survive the summer." Harry asked him, carefully masking the fact that he had no intention of staying on Privet Drive this summer. Moody knew he was hiding something and agreed if only to keep him out of harm's way. Besides, he did not want Harry with those horrible muggles any longer than Harry wanted to be.

Harry and Moody walked out to the gates and disapparated, unaware they were being watched by the piercing blue eyes of the headmaster. Dumbledore strode back to his desk and sat down heavily, smirking to himself. Although Harry had blown up, he knew Harry was rather scared inside. Now that Harry would seek out answers, and in turn more power, Albus knew he could regain control over his young weapon. If properly attuned and used, Harry would defeat Voldemort, fulfill the prophecy, and then he would find a way to finish the boy. Afterwards, he could claim the position of the heir to the founders with all their wealth, knowledge, and power, before he began working on a much older, much more dangerous prophecy he had heard long ago.

Albus barely noticed as Fawkes sent him disapproving glances and flamed out. He was far too focused on planning out his next steps, and preparing to play the concerned grandfather.

Meanwhile, far away from the British Isles, a menacing voice spoke from deep within a dark, horrifying castle. "It is nearly time. Soon the world will know and fear us. They will cower before our power. Soon, my loyal followers. In the meantime, we have preparations to make." The voice was cold, cruel, and menacing. It bespoke thousands of years of suffering and pain. In it, you could hear the desire for power. In it, you could hear the promise of revenge….

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Ok, so I hate dialogue. I thought I wouldn't ever get this chapter over with. I hope this satisfied some of the viewers who wanted to see Dumbledore's side. I am not sure if he will always be so dark, or if he will regain some trust. It could go either way. I really want to know who you guys believe Harry should be paired with. I don't know if I want to write him straight into an amazing soul mate, or if he should play the field first. Either way, who do you all think it should be for the forever part? Who do you all believe the person at the end is?**

 **Hope you all liked the chapter, and as always read and review!**

 **Special thanks to the first three reviewers: Uzuuchi007, HarryHermioneEdwardBella, and ladysavay!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

 **Harry's POV:**

Harry Potter appeared on Diagon Alley with Mad Eye Moody right beside him. This caused many people on the alley to stop momentarily to watch them. Acting supremely unconcerned, Harry led the way toward the magnificent marble white building in the center. Once in the bank, Moody put a protective hand on Harry's shoulder, eyeing everyone in the bank mistrustfully. He had no problem with goblins, but he did not trust nearly anyone else in the world aside Dumbledore, in whose trust he had temporarily misplaced it seems, and young Harry.

Harry led the way to a desk, and asked the goblin behind it if Griphook was available. Both the goblin and Moody seemed surprised to hear Harry specifically ask after a goblin by name. Harry did not understand why, or rather he did but did not like the reasons. The goblin scurried off in search of his requested kin. Griphook came to the counter quickly.

"Mr. Potter, how may I assist you today?" He asked with a very business-like expression on his face.

"Hello, Griphook. I need assistance with getting to my vault. Also, I was wondering if you might have any paperwork here indicating the full amount I have in it. I come every year to withdraw some, yet the amount inside seems unchanged. It never seems to shrink or grow." Harry said with a small smile. He was curious as to the answers, as those very things had been weighing in his mind for a long while. Muggle banks usually sent out statements once a month. He had seen his uncle receive them in the post.

Griphook looked shocked for a moment, before anger and worry crossed his face. He spoke in a menacing, angry tone. "Are you telling me that you have never received your monthly audits? You should have been receiving monthly audits from the moment you turned eleven. Also, your account should be increased in size each year when you visit. I see we have much to discuss. If your time allows it, and you don't mind, would you follow me to one of our conference rooms while we get to the bottom of this before visiting your vault?"

Harry did not have a problem with it, and surprisingly neither did Moody. He was curious as to why all of this was happening as well. They followed the short goblin down a wide hall with a tall ceiling before entering a room with a very long, black marble table residing in the center. In the very middle of this table, it looked as if a pensieve had been built into the center. Griphook seated them across from one another at the far end of the table before walking out and shutting the door behind him. Harry looked at Moody.

"What do you reckon? They seemed like something is really wrong."

"I don't know, lad. I will admit that it is odd that you haven't received monthly audits. I get them myself for my vault here. Other than that, I can't see anything going on. I guess we just wait and see." Moody replied, scratching his chin in thought.

They waited in silence for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only five or so minutes before Griphook trotted back in with several stacks of paperwork in his arms. He took the position at the head of the table, motioned for silence, and began sorting out the papers in stacks. When he finished, his long fingers stroked his chin thoughtfully as he gazed at the two humans before him.

"Well, Mr. Potter, it seems that a number of inaccuracies have occurred with your account. Your audit statements were sent to your magical guardian, rather than yourself. Your guardian was meant to show these to you, so there is a breach of conduct there, but not much of one. From there, it gets more interesting. It seems as if you are unaware of your family holdings. While I cannot discuss them with a minor, I can tell you that the Potter family has a family vault. Yours is a trust vault, one which is made for your schooling years. Each year, on your birthday, it is meant to reset itself to 100,000 galleons. It seems as if every year on your birthday, a withdrawal of half that amount was made, and transferred into the account of your guardian. Your guardian, if you are unaware, is a Mr. Albus Dumbledore. This stack of paper, represents your trust vault and its current allotment of gold, and this stack here shows your guardianship folder contents." Here Griphook passed two stacks down to Harry before continuing. "These two you are allowed to have as a minor, as they directly refer to you in your capacity as a minor."

Harry looked them over quickly, and passed them to Moody, who glanced over them as well curiously. To his surprise, Harry was very wealthy with the school trust alone, even with gold being stolen. Harry spoke, his mind racing. "Griphook, I know as a minor you probably can't tell me much, but can you tell me what happened to the money stolen from my vault?"

Griphook gave what could be considered the goblin equivalent of a smile before answering. "Well Mr. Potter, it seems as though luck is on your side. While I cannot give that information to anyone who is not currently Head of the Potter vaults, I have another matter to discuss with you. Mr. Sirius Orion Black was your godfather. I am aware that you know this. I am telling you because although he spent 12 years in Azkaban prison, there was never a trial. As we tried to tell the Ministry of Magic once, we cannot freeze or allocate the assets of a criminal unless they are indeed convicted at trial. In his newest, most recent will, he claimed you as the sole beneficiary. The stack directly in the middle has everything on his will, and the Black Family Estate. He has given it all to you. While normally a minor cannot receive any inheritance entitled to them, he has also filed one more piece of information with us. Legally, without his trial, he was never unnamed as your godfather. In that capacity, should his death ever occur, he has signed and filed an emancipation document on your behalf. This means you will legally be considered of age in our world, as well as being able to cast magic and the other perks of being an adult. This also means you can inherit your other entitlements and inheritances once you have signed the papers stating you accept the Black Family inheritance."

Harry accepted the document to sign with a look of wonder on his young face. Moody looked shocked as well, and maybe even a little impressed that Sirius had such foresight. Harry needed emancipation if he was to succeed at anything recently popping up at him. Harry signed the documents and passed them back in silence.

Griphook accepted the papers and spoke again. "The Potter inheritance is the same as the Black, making you Head of both Most Ancient and Noble houses. I need a drop of your blood for the Potter Family Estate, as well as two others you may be entitled to. You are heir to the founders of Hogwarts. While this is almost certain to us, you must understand our hesitation. It has never occurred that all four founders have the same heir. We need a drop of your blood to verify this also. If you are the heir, the founder vault will be open to you. Rather than having separate vaults, the founders of the school shared one. I do not know what is in there, except the monetary holdings of which were reported to us by the head of the goblin nation himself, the only other person besides the heir with access to said vault."

Harry nodded, and took the knife offered him. After handing it back with a fine line of his blood clinging to it, he cocked his head questioningly before asking, "Sir, you said two inheritances besides the Potter and Black estates. You only mentioned one more. What is the other?"

"Well my lord, it seems as though you are indeed heir of the founders." Griphook said as he dropped two drops of blood in stone bowls, one drop in each, and the water within turned gold. "As to the final inheritance, I cannot ascertain such a claim. You must be willing to undergo an inheritance ritual. These are rare, occurring only in the old druidic times. More unusual is the wizard's name to which it belonged. This particular inheritance, is from Merlin himself, handed down through the Godric Gryffindor line."

Harry and Moody's jaws dropped and they almost quite literally fell out of their seats. The two wizards sat in shock upon hearing this, and could not bring themselves to move for a few moments, eliciting a laugh from the goblin in the room with them. Griphook stroked his chin once more before speaking again.

"This inheritance ritual is secret. I do know it tests your blood, magic, and spirit. I do not know how, as no one is permitted to witness it, nor speak of it after. If you should not pass the test, your memory of the event will be removed, and you will be returned safely to my office, unharmed. Should you actually succeed in being named heir, you will be transported to my office, fully aware, where we shall discuss further action. For now, I need to know if you intend to pursue such a claim."

Harry thought it over, weighing the benefits versus the risks. Since there was hardly a risk, he agreed to pursue it with a determined look upon his face. Griphook stated they would wait for the rest of the inheritance discussion until they knew if he had succeeded or not. It took Moody a moment to snap out of his own unresponsive state of shock. He followed Harry and Griphook as they went lower and lower into the bank. Climbing into a cart, they shot off. They went further down than any of them had been, save Griphook, who had been down this far once in his entire career, on tour with his father. They flew past many things, including dragons, until they came to rest at the end of the rails set before a mighty, tall, gold set of double doors. They all climbed out and followed Griphook until asked to stop and wait. He turned to face the two humans, his face becoming serious.

"I am sorry, Alastor Moody. You may not accompany young Harry any further than this. I cannot go either. He must go in alone. Young Harry Potter, may luck be on your side." Moody and Griphook loaded back into the cart and shot off the opposite direction as Harry stared at the doors, unsure of himself. Squaring his shoulders, he approached the doors courageously. He stopped when he touched the handle and a large statue popped up on both sides. It spoke, its voice deep, clear, and commanding.

"Who dares to enter the vault of Myrrdin Emrys?"

"Harry James Potter, heir to the name of Merlin." Harry said in a clear voice. He was unsure where the words came from, but was grateful for it nonetheless. It was better than squeaking every time he was addressed.

"Harry James Potter, if you be of true blood heir status, take the knife and drop a single drip of blood onto the altar." With this, a stone alter appeared out of nowhere with a knife atop it. Both the stone alter and the knife was pitch black. Harry walked to it and slit one of his fingers, dropping a single drop on the stone alter. It glowed white a moment before fading back to black. The voice spoke again in a deep tone.

"It seems you are of true blood. Is your magic true and pure?" It asked, this time a trifle less menacingly.

"It is." Harry answered quietly. He felt a hum surround him momentarily and fade.

"It seems both your blood and magic are true and pure. Now, your spirit shall be tested. Prepare yourself!" The voice said. Harry fell to the floor, out cold. In his mind however, another scene was occurring. He awoke in his mind to a pitch black room with a white door. Harry stood, carefully examining his surroundings. He started when he noticed five people standing behind him, awaiting acknowledgement.

"Who-who are you?" Harry asked, frightened slightly. He did not understand where he was, nor why. A man in a forest green robe stepped forwards to speak. He had long black hair reaching the middle of his back. His eyes were a piercing green, and he seemed so prideful and powerful that Harry could only stare at him in awe.

"I am Salazar Slytherin. We are the four founders, plus your great many-times grandfather, Merlin. We wished to speak with you, to decide if our inheritance is well given and earned. Answer the questions directed at you, and all will be well." The man spoke. He had a menacing, almost cruel voice. It was persuasive in a way as well.

Suddenly, Harry felt all of his thoughts being laid bare to the beings in front of him. Instinctively, he tried to shy away from the probe. The five people in front of him smiled in some way at the attempt before continuing. It felt like it took hours to Harry, but in reality it only took a few minutes. Then it just stopped without warning, and Harry felt as if his mind was his own once more. The five people looked to each other for a long moment before nodding simultaneously. These people were on the same wavelength so easily that it creeped him out to no end. Salazar Slytherin stepped up first and spoke.

"I, Salazar Slytherin, have you judged you worthy to be my heir in all ways. We each will give you two gifts, plus all our knowledge and remaining power. My two gifts to you, are my understanding of curses and how to counter them. I also gift you my knowledge of Potions and how to apply and counter them. I learned everything I could during my tenure on the earth, but these I knew well, and developed many on my own of each." Then, the man next to him stepped up as he stepped back. This man had brown eyes, a tall and handsome frame, with long black hair. His voice was deep and reassuring as he spoke confidently.

"I, Godric Gryffindor, have judged you worthy to be my heir in all ways. My two gifts to you aside from my knowledge and power of other things, are two things I too perfected in my time in the flesh. I gift you my reaction time and dueling skills, along with a deep understanding of the Transfiguration Arts. This includes Animagus skills as well." The next to step up was a plump, cheerful looking woman. She had blonde hair that fell in curls to her shoulders, and kind, blue eyes. When she spoke, it was with a gentle, almost loving tone.

"I, Helga Hufflepuff, have judged you worthy to be my heir in all ways. Aside from the norm, my two gifts to you will be those tied directly to my family gifts. I gift you my knowledge of Charms and how to use and remove them, as well as my knowledge of Magical Creatures." Then, the final woman in the room stepped up. She was by far the most beautiful woman he had yet to notice with dark hair falling straight to her shoulders, a pale complexion, full red lips, and light blue eyes. She had a slender frame, and spoke with wisdom far beyond the years her body spoke.

"I, Rowena Ravenclaw, have judged you worthy to be my heir in all ways. Aside my knowledge and power, I gift you two things I have a deeper understanding of. I gift you my knowledge of Runes and how to cast them, and I gift you my knowledge of Wards and how to undue them. Amongst other things you learn from us, you will also be given our understanding of Charms, Transfiguration, Curses, Defensive spells, Potions, Astronomy, Magical Creatures, Healing, Herbology, Wandless Magic, and Legilimancy and Occlumency. On top of this, you will be given our personal experience to draw on in times of need." Then the final, gray haired man stepped forward. Harry knew this to be Merlin as he was the only one left to speak. He did not even need to be told, as the power he felt coming from the man was good enough to go by.

"I, Myrrdin Emrys, have judged you worthy to be my heir in all ways. As Merlin's heir, you have access to the vault in my name in Gringotts. In it, there is a pensieve with all my memories. While you are here, I will gift you my knowledge, experience, and power, but that way you can see them for yourself without having to search your mind for them. Also, I gift you my personal knowledge on development of the Legilimancy and Occlumency. You will be able to know how to guard your mind like no other, and breaking into minds will become easier. You must be careful not to fall deeply into the lure of doing so however. My other gift to you will be my skill and knowledge in the art of enchanting and spell creation. Before I end this, I do have one final gift to you. This one, I believe will benefit you greatly. I gift you my personal knowledge of rituals. Now, aside from our gifts, knowledge, power, and experiences, you are the heir to our personal vaults. Anything in there you like, could use, or would benefit you, you are welcome to take and use. We only ask that you not abuse this. We spent our whole lives gathering things precious to us in them. Inside the vaults, you may find that some of us left messages, or specific objects to help our heir in the future. Please locate them and use them accordingly." Merlin stepped back, only to have Slytherin take his place once more. He looked slightly unsure of himself, but spoke anyway.

"Harry Potter, many in your time despise me and my house. It has fallen from what it once was. I did not hate nor agree to killing muggleborns, and am not sure where the rumor started. If anyone does say this in your hearing, please correct them. I never left the school because of an argument. I left it for research on a potion I had discovered. Also, Tom Riddle is not, nor has ever been my heir. It is true he came here to seek the inheritance and his family once owned some of my artifacts, but they were only distant friends of the family. He is lying to say I have claimed him. Please, rectify this wrong as well. My family name is important to me, and I would dearly like to see it cleared. We are now sending you back into your body. It will be an hour in passing before your mind is able to cope with and sort all of the things it has gained today. When it is done, you will wake up in Griphook's office. We all have much we would like to say, but another time perhaps. In the meantime, good luck, Harry Potter. The world is in your hands."

Harry felt his mind spinning before he blacked out completely…

 **Author's Note:**

 **Thank you all for all of the views! Over 1,000 now. Also, thanks to all who reviewed. I will now try to answer and recognize specific reviews that stated or asked something I believe I can give some insight or special thanks for. If I did not mention you, I apologize and must have overlooked the name, as I was copying the reviews to another sheet of paper as they came.**

 **Keyter Derton: Thanks for giving it a chance. I do know that Dumbledore will not be just a one-dimensional asshole. I don't like those stories much myself. He will be quite evil for a while, steadily growing worse as time goes on. Once Harry finds out why, he will attempt to save and convert him back onto the right path, or he will end up killing him in the process. Either way, Dumbledore will not be forever bad.**

 **Sachaelle: I did not know which honorific to use, so I had settled on sir for moody as an auror/soldier-like figure, and Headmaster for McGonagall as she seems to always be formal if nothing else.**

 **SennyBee98: I hope this chapter gave you more insight as to whom the person at the end of chapter one is. I left a few small clues in this chapter as to the answer. Also, I have to apologize because Harry/Ginny seems to be the most liked and requested pairing. I promise that there will be a few OC characters though, and their romantic sides will eclipse your interest in Harry's love life. Keep guessing on the other character! You got close on the first guess.**

 **Thanks for the reviews, and views once more! You guys are awesome, and I am glad everyone seems to be enjoying the story so far. As always, Please read and review this chapter, as it should have made much about the story very clear. I also made sure to pay special attention to where Harry's areas of interest and professions will be at its highest.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four:**

Harry woke up right as he arrived in Griphook's office with a small pop. Groaning as he felt the hardness of the cold stone floor, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. His head swam dizzyingly for a moment before clearing slightly. Weirdly, his vision had not cleared yet and remained somewhat unfocused. Removing his glasses to see if they were broke, a smile broke his expression as the vision turned perfect as they were removed. After the quick moment of happiness concerning his vision, Harry noticed for the first time that he could feel magical auras. It was because of this that he felt two other people in the room.

When he turned to confront the presences, he saw Griphook and Mad-Eye watching him somewhat apprehensively. Griphook cleared his throat.

"Ahem…if you will take a seat Mr. Potter, I will explain to you your various holdings and property."

Harry took a seat, somewhat embarrassed to have been caught up in his introspection. He watched Moody stomp to a seat beside him and take it up as well. Griphook shuffled some of the papers on his desk again and spoke in a clear, ringing tone that seemed to be coming from his goblin pride in dealing with such an ancient and powerful client.

"Lord Potter, it is with great pride in our security that I inform you that although various monies have been taken from your trust vault, none but a true blooded heir and trusted members of the family could have taken from your family vaults. That said, I have here in front of me the various statements of your vault holdings. I need you to look over each one, and sign the appropriate form stating we gave you a copy." Griphook said, passing four documents to Harry for review.

Harry looked them over and his jaw dropped in momentary astonishment. His holdings were so large that he was certainly the richest wizard alive, and they went as follows;

 _ **Potter Family Vaults:**_

 _ **Trust Vault;**_

 _ **100,000 galleons-stipulated to be renewed to said amount once a year on July 31**_ _ **st**_ _ **from the Family Vault.**_

 _ **50% share in Weasley' Wizarding Wheezes**_

 _ **Family Vault;**_

 _ **Total Galleon Holdings at 85,500,000 galleons**_

 _ **Various Home Properties**_

 _ **50% Shares in Daily Prophet, Apothecary on Diagon Alley, Ollivanders, Madam Maulkins Robe Shop, and Flourish and Blotts.**_

 _ **Various Magical and Personal artifacts**_

 _ **Black Family Vaults:**_

 _ **Black Family Vault;**_

 _ **Total Galleon Holdings at 214,500,000 galleons**_

 _ **Various Home Properties**_

 _ **50% shares in Wizarding Apparel on Knockturn Alley, Apothecary on Knockturn Alley, Borgin and Burkes on Knockturn Alley, and a Wandcrafter on Knockturn Alley.**_

 _ **40% shares in Weasley' Wizard Wheezes on Diagon Alley, and Daily Prophet on Diagon Alley.**_

 _ **Various Magical and Personal artifacts**_

 _ **Founders' Vaults:**_

 _ **Hogwart's Vault;**_

 _ **1,000,000 galleons-refilled yearly on June 1**_ _ **st**_ _ **from the Founder Personal Vault**_

 _ **25% shares in Apothecary on Diagon Alley, Madam Maulkins Robe Shop, Flourish and Blotts on Diagon Alley, Ollivanders, and Eeylops Owl Emporium.**_

 _ **Founders' Personal Vault;**_

 _ **200,000,000 Galleons-replenished monthly from investments and profits from Hogwarts—stipulation to goblins of any excess over said amount in return for security and vault access**_

 _ **100% ownership of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry**_

 _ **Various Magical and Personal artifacts**_

 _ **Various Home Properties**_

 _ **Merlin Vault:**_

 _ **Merlin Personal Vault;**_

 _ **Total Galleon Holdings at 1,500,000,000 Galleons**_

 _ **Phoenix Estate-Appraised to be worth an excess of 2 billion galleons**_

 _ **Various Magical and Personal artifacts**_

 _ **TOTAL AMOUNTS IN ALL VAULTS AND HOLDINGS:**_

 _ **Total Galleon Amount-2,001,000,000 Galleons**_

 _ **Total Property Value-Unknown due to security measures not allowing full appraisals**_

To say that Harry was astonished may have been an understatement. He signed off on the copies before passing them to Moody. Moody's magical eye was swirling quickly as even the aged auror could not hold his expression. The signed documents were returned to Griphook who filed them away quickly. Griphook spoke up once more after he finished filing.

"Lord Potter, you must understand that with these holdings, you are now the richest wizard available. I am afraid, however, I must rain on the parade momentarily. While we will continue to gather evidence on your trust vault occurrences, despite the skill of the fraud in covering his/her tracks, there is another occurrence that we must look into. The Hogwarts School Vault has an enormous amount of purchases necessary yearly. Some of these newer purchases have left school funding lower than usual, and have only begun occurring since Lucius Malfoy had been named as Director of the Board for Hogwarts. The audits show ridiculous sums of money being taken for no less than idiotic reasoning. We shall look further into the matter, and get an owl to you as soon as we find something. In the meantime, I have a book here for you that details your new responsibilities as the Head of a Most Ancient and Noble House. Other than that, do you have any questions? I can promise you that we will do our best to gather evidence against both accounts of fraud, and shall await your word before going ahead with pressing charges on either issue."

Harry thought for a moment before replying that he had no further questions. Griphook smiled and shook his hand quietly before leading Harry and Moody out to the main hall. Motioning for them to wait for a moment, Griphook ran off to one of the tellers and spoke a few terse words. After waiting a few moments, he ran off back towards them. As he reached them, he handed Harry a small black card explaining that all he had to do was touch his wand to the card and say a vault name. It would automatically transfer the money from the vault for whatever purchase he made. This worked for both magical and muggle purchases. He then asked if Harry wanted to see his new vaults, to which Harry agreed. Moody fell back into the role of a supervising guard as they all climbed into one of the carts and took off.

All of Harry's vaults were on the bottom levels of Gringotts. They stopped first at the Potter Family Vault. Harry climbed out and went in. It took him nearly half an hour before he returned to the cart with a miniature trunk similar to Moody's, and an auror handbook that must have been his father's when he was on the force. Next, they stopped at the Black Family Vault. Here, Harry took a longer time as he shrunk all of the books in the vault and added them to the first trunk compartment, where Moody noticed he had many other books presumably from the Potter Vault. Stopping at the Founders Vault, he repeated the books method, and also came out with three potions made by Salazar Slytherin himself as well as a pensieve. He refused to answer any questions about the three potions, and so they took off to the Merlin Vault.

They arrived at the gold double doors, and Harry walked in. Moody and Griphook spoke of inconsequential things as Harry seemed to take nearly forever in the vault. When he came out, he had even more books in the first compartment, the second was full of potions, the third full of crystals, the fourth full of precious gems that must have been priceless with their size, and the fifth was full of maps and scrolls that seemed to make no sense. Also, he had another pensieve in his pocket. The pensieves, Harry knew, were so he could relive the experiences of Merlin and the Founders, not just own their memories of the events.

Moody only saw most of this as Harry showed him on the way back. He had shown him not only because he was proud of the findings, but also because he was unsure as to why Merlin, with all his gold, would keep crystals, gems, and nonsensical maps. Moody agreed to check the ministry for information, and they climbed out as Harry shrunk the trunk to pocket size once more. They left the bank amidst many bows from goblins they passed, and with a promise from Griphook to owl as soon as he learned anything. Also, as they were leaving, Griphook gave Harry a small scroll with his properties and addresses listed within, keyed to his blood so only he could read it.

Harry decided that before he went shopping or did anything else, he needed to sort out where he was staying now that he was emancipated. He consulted the scroll and realized that the easy and obvious choice for him would be Merlin's Estate, Phoenix Manor. Not only would it irk Dumbledore to no end that he was staying away from Privet Drive, but it would also irritate him more if he found out where he was and who used to own it. He saw coordinates scribed on the bottom of the scroll, and asked Moody to apparate them there. Moody reluctantly agreed. Dumbledore's protection didn't seem to do much for the boy, he was legally an adult now, and he was admittedly a little curious to see anything that once belonged to Merlin.

Taking the arm Moody offered him, Harry and Moody disappeared with a soft pop, never noticing the eyes of one Severus Snape watching them. The only reason Snape knew it was Potter as he slithered off to inform Dumbledore, was because the old man had told him who Moody was with. Harry and Moody appeared seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Moody was confused, as he prided himself on his abilities and thought that he had been spot on in his apparition. Harry did not share the confusion however. He walked forward, wand out, and touched it to nothing in midair before coming back to touch Moody's arm. Snapping out of his miniature trance, Harry watched with Moody as a huge black gate rose from the ground. He walked forward, somehow knew to touch his wand to the center of the gate, and walked through as it opened. Harry could feel thousands of powerful wards snap into place as he passed through the arch of the gate.

They passed through a small stone archway after that and came out onto a completely open space. It seemed to go for miles in each direction, with a huge Quidditch pitch on the right side, an enormous garden on the left with greenhouses behind it, a huge pool setup in the back with a clear field behind it, and an enormous three story mansion in the center. There seemed to be a stable not far from the pitch on the right side, and several horses, lions, birds, and other various magical animals roamed the grounds. Harry was sure if it was this huge on the outside, the inside must be outrageously large with the expansion charms he sensed inside.

They made it to the door, and noticed a beautiful lion-like creature with wings and a face like an eagle. It was a gryphon. For a magical creature even, it was a very rare animal. It sat, guarding the door with its body, and turned its head to give Harry and Moody a piercing glare. After a moment it gave a glad sounding cry and the two wizards found themselves surrounded by animals both muggle and magical in origin. Harry noticed the animal crowd part and a most beautiful creature strode through to stand beside the gryphon in front of Harry. It was a sphinx.

Harry made it a point to pet all the other animals first before the gryphon and sphinx walked over to him and sank into what could only be taken as a bow. Harry reached out in awe to pet the magnificent creatures. He noticed they must be the animals' leaders, as they both gave a cry and the animals all took off. The sphinx and gryphon looked back to the wizards, and the sphinx spoke in Harry's mind. She had a deep, musical voice. The gryphon did the same, except he had a strong male voice.

" _Welcome, Harry Potter, Heir of the great wizard Merlin. Welcome home."_ The creatures spoke in harmony in Harry's mind, and turned to Moody to repeat the greeting. They moved aside, allowing Harry and Moody to pass into what once was the home of Merlin, what was now the home of Harry Potter.

 **Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office**

Albus Dumbledore paced back and forth as Severus Snape completed his tale. "And you are quite sure you were unable to follow him Severus?" The older man asked in a hard tone.

"Quite sure, Headmaster. As I said, the brat and Moody both apparated away before I could even move. Where to I am uncertain, as I was not close enough to hear any conversation if one took place." A younger, dark looking man replied. Severus Snape, fresh from Diagon Alley, had just told Albus Dumbledore what he witnessed.

"We need to locate Harry and quickly. The fact he came from Gringotts is very disconcerting. Young Mr. Potter may learn things we do not wish him to, and in doing so he could unravel all we have worked for thus far. I think your earlier suggestion as to how to bring him in will have to be taken into consideration. I shall call an emergency order meeting later this afternoon, and shall explain some of the story to the others, and gather help in finding him."

Snape nodded his head quickly, and walked out at the clear ending to the meeting. Dumbledore sighed loudly, and looked out of his window again at the darkening grounds. He could feel a mental war being waged in his own mind. He spoke aloud to himself, concerned for the boy's welfare.

"Where are you, my boy? Why can you not see all I am doing is for your own good?" Another voice in his head seemed to grow stronger, and the kind glint in his eyes was replaced with a telltale sparkle, and his voice grew colder.

"It's best you come out now, boy. It'll save us all the trouble, but why ruin the fun? I do so enjoy cat and mouse games…"

 **Elsewhere in Great Britain**

Lord Voldemort sat in his throne in his manor, hidden in the wilderness. None of his followers, dumb as most of them were, had made a connection to the place or its significance yet. One of the younger initiates came forward into the room at a rushed pace, and kneeled in front of the throne.

"Speak." A high, cold voice demanded of the quivering form. The man stood and licked his lips nervously before doing as he was bid.

"I come with great news, My Lord. It seems as though Harry Potter is nowhere to be found. Our spy has reported him missing, and even the great fool, Dumbledore, has no idea where he is. It is said that he was seen apparating from in front of Gringotts early this afternoon."

"Ah. So the little boy is going into hiding is he? Good, I can make use of this information. You have proven yourself useful. I shall remember that, Caliban. Lord Voldemort knows how to reward his followers." Voldemort said in a cold voice. He clapped his hands, and one of his ever present lackeys brought out a young, beautiful muggle girl of the age of 15. She was crying and trying to fight off her captors as she was brought over to Caliban. Caliban smiled as she was quickly undressed and forced to kneel down in front of the throne. Caliban undressed with an evil grin and stepped forward to sate his, and his master's desire.

 **Unknown Location**

"Not long now, my dear, not long. The fools are all making our preparations come to fruition. After so long of waiting, I can almost taste the revenge on the tip of my tongue." A cruel, hard voice remarked as the owner sauntered to a bed where a gorgeous, young looking woman awaited him. He would have his revenge on everyone and everything to have ever done him wrong. Soon, he would rule the universe, and all who stood in his way would be killed, mercilessly…

 **Author's Notes!**

 **This is the point where I must humbly beg forgiveness for any and all grammar and other mistakes. I am not perfect, nor am I writing bestsellers, but I try my best to make this story worth reading.**

 **A quick thank you to all reviewers, as you continue to make the story worth writing. I thank all reviewers, and also will take time each chapter to specify certain types of reviews.**

 **Special thanks to Rachel, who was especially enthusiastic in her review. I am glad you find the story so enjoyable, as well as giving me a blunt answer as to what you'd like to see going on relationship wise. I know you said you like Harry/Ginny, as do I, but what do you think of an OC soul bonding for Harry? Not too overused, and hopefully an appealing ideal to all. Not set in stone yet, but would like to gather thoughts on the matter.**

 **Special thanks to Scrappy8and Sennybee98 for repeated reviews. I think there was also one more reviewer to have done so twice also, so if you are not mentioned, please forgive me for not noticing it.**

 **Sennybee98, you have gotten much closer to the truth of the voice. You are correct on an enemy of Merlin, but it will be an OC enemy, based off of a relation of Morgan LeFey, and with its own completely AU problem. I hope everyone likes the idea and how it plays out, but I especially hope you like it as you seem particularly interested in this branch of plot.**

 **Final special thanks to serenityselena, as well as nesciamema for reviewing with exactly what they would like to see also. I promise I will try to include your wants in the upcoming chapters to the best of my abilities, but implore you, nesciamema, to remember that although he will get "taken to the cleaners" for stealing from Harry, that Harry will also need him later. I will do my best to indulge your revenge taste, as I have one also, and I hope you like what I have in store for Dumbledore later in the story.**

 **As to all of my other readers, thanks for staying with the story thus far! It is exhilarating to see 2,000 views on the story now! I am glad all seem to be enjoying it. In the future, we will see Harry do a bit of shopping (otherwise no point to being rich, right?) as well as seeing him start to do a bit of training and planning. Remember he inherited all that power and knowledge, but it is like a baby in an adult body. It is always growing, and he needs to learn to control and use it safely. I implore everyone to think on the soul bonding idea quite thoroughly, and the possible use of an OC character in it. Also, I would like my readers to do an analysis of the idea behind how this mysterious enemy waiting for revenge would have lived long enough to still want it. Finally, think on the matter of Dumbledore's duel personality, and the possible reasoning behind it.**

 **As always, please continue to read and review. All thoughts on the matters I spoke of, please review with an answer or feel free to send me a private message and I will be happy to talk it over.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five:**

Harry was absolutely loving the house. They had been there for about a week and had seen no fit reason to leave just yet. He was extremely happy with the layout, and knew that Merlin must have spent much of his earlier years working on it. Though he thought the outside to be fantastic, the inside was nothing short of amazing. It was several floors, and constituted a variety of areas to different practices. On the entry level, a short entrance hall led from the door, where a peg stood for outdoor wear to be shed. As you walked in, you came to an empty Arrival Room. It was enchanted to be under the wards, yet to allow apparition of the inhabitants, as well as trusted others. It also had a large fireplace on the right hand side to allow floo connection. A box sat in the corner, presumably for used portkeys. There were no doors in it, which had confused them until one wall turned into a see-through version. They had been able to walk right through it, and watch it turn solid behind them. From there, it led into an amazing sitting area.

The sitting area had been the last room on that floor. It had two large red plush couches and one armchair all set facing a large marble coffee table, and behind it, an enormous wall fireplace. Facing where you entered the room, the wall was covered in bookshelves, which mostly contained scrolls. The whole of the wall to the right hand side was a window, displaying the garden with a large lake at its center. Behind the couches were two stone staircases with one leading upstairs, and one leading down. If you went downstairs, you came into a stone corridor with doors on either side of the hallway, ending with a stone wall dead-end. There were four doors in the hallway. The first one on the right side led to an impressive Potions Lab. It had several standard cauldrons, twenty of them to be exact, and ten more cauldrons, each made from a different material ranging from copper to gold. The cupboards along the walls contained equipment for making the potions.

Directly across the hall was an ingredient storage room. It spiraled upwards a long way with shelves stocked with almost every ingredient imaginable. There was a ladder that allowed you to reach the higher up materials. It had to go up nearly two hundred feet. Down the hall further, the second door on the right led to a potions storage room. It was the exact same as the ingredient room, except for being stocked with potions and not ingredients. A book set on a pedestal in the center on the room allowed you to name a potion and see how many there were as well as the effects. Touching the name of the potion caused the potion to float down into your hand. These were all types of potions, including several poisons and restricted potions. The final room caused them some excitement.

The final basement room opened up into an impressively sized pool. It was heated, judging by the steam rising from it, and had several stalactites running from the ceiling into the water. It was lit by hundreds of floating candles. The upstairs was much different. The first floor, or second depending on the point of view, was just as awesome. There was a library that held thousands upon thousands of books, and Harry made sure to unpack all of the ones he brought, as well as the potions, maps, and scrolls that came along too. He had called upon Dobby at that point to assist him with placing it all properly and neatly, and he had insisted on serving him, and resigning from Hogwarts. Seeing no way to sway him otherwise, Harry accepted, on the stipulation Dobby get some help as it was a big house. Dobby returned with Winky, who had brightened considerably as she realized she would have a master once more. There was also a huge wall fireplace with a coffee table and comfortable chintz armchairs in front of it. The wall on the left as you entered held three doors that led into offices. The offices were all different, but the same in size except the center one. The other two had a red and a blue theme, with differing desks to match the theme. It held filing cabinets along the walls with a bookshelf on either side of the doorway. The desks held a surprising amount of parchment, quills, and ink. The center office was the exact same, except larger, and done in black. The next three rooms were hard to take in as well.

The next room on that floor was a training room. It was set up as a sort of room of requirement, one that set up necessary training material and dummies to train a specifically stated skill. The room following this was the kitchen. It was immaculately clean, with magically powered refrigerators, ovens, stoves, and other amenities. It had full sets of cooking materials, silverware, and dining wares. The third room was an amazing pantry that was separated into three parts. One was vegetables and fruit, the second was meats, and the third was drinks. Each was extensive, stretching for nearly five hundred feet in all directions. The food and drinks had preserving charms cast on them, and there seemed to be multiple counts of all types of meat, fruit, and vegetables. There was a large variety of beer, ale, wine, and whiskey. There was also a large number of non-alcoholic drinks.

The fourth room gave Harry some answers on what to do with his crystals. It had multiple alcoves stretching hundreds of feet in the air. Each alcove held a crystal. All crystals were powering some sort of ward or function for the house. Harry also found he could draw on the power of the crystals. They held so much energy that Merlin must have spent a very long time powering them. He felt as though one alone could move a mountain. Harry assumed the ones he found in the vault was removed as a safety measure should someone ever somehow manage to enter this place. The gems must have just been valuables Merlin liked to collect.

That theory was proven as he entered the final room on that floor. It was a dining room. In all corners of the room, a table for two was sitting for small gatherings. In the center, a long table was resting with twelve seats. The long table was hard, and beautiful. It was made out of Diamond. The other four small tables were made out of Sapphire, Emerald, Amethyst, and Ruby. The chairs were all made out of Onyx gems. The dining room had wall windows on all sides, and the ceiling reflected the sky outside, much like Hogwarts great hall. The room overlooked the Quidditch pitch and forest beyond. From here you could see that the stone wall attached to the gate ran into the forest for a ways, and then presumably came around where it ran out from the forest and around the property to meet at the gate once more. Harry figured the stone wall at twenty feet in height, and maybe 4 foot thick. From there, they went on to the final floor of the home.

This floor held all the bedrooms. Almost each room was the same size, which was still huge. There were ten rooms in all, and Harry could feel that as Master of the Manor, he could still fit another ten with an enlargement charm if necessary. Each room was roughly 500 ft in width and length. It held large, comfortable beds, a small table and kitchen setup, a large fireplace facing the bed with comfortable couches facing it and a large coffee table in front of them. They all had a bathroom with a double shower to fit two people comfortably, and a large, swimming bathtub. The bathrooms were complete with towel cubbies and racks with bathrobes on them. Another rack on the opposite wall held an amazing number of shampoos, conditioners, and body washes. The final room in these private rooms was the wardrobes. There was one for men, and one for women. They held robes, muggle clothing, sleepwear, socks, and shoes. The men had a mirror for shaving, with aftershave, colognes, and deodorants surrounding it. The women had a two-sided mirror to sit in front of. The different types of shoes surrounded it, as well as makeup, hair materials, and nail polishes of all colors. The wardrobes seemed to be self-updating, and all clothing was transfigured to match the current fashion. This was a feat in itself, as most transfigurations only lasted as long as the caster had the strength to hold them. These rooms must have been tied to one of the crystals as well, Harry deduced.

The only different room was the room once belonging to Merlin. It was this room that Harry took for himself. It was the exact same as the other rooms, except Harry had a larger bed, a larger bathtub and shower, and a mirror. This mirror could scry different places on the property, except the private rooms. If an intruder triggered the wards, the mirror would alert Harry if he was in the room, and show him the intruder. He thought he would find that particularly useful, just like the office in the library what with all his plans and obviously upcoming paperwork amount. It also had a safe. This safe was coded with blood wards, and expansion charms. Only he could open it. In this, he put all the gems he had brought with him, as well as the pensieves he had taken from the vaults. Pausing for a moment when he came across the crystals, Harry remembered a spell Merlin had invented for such a situation. Casting it wandlessly, as required, it moved the crystals into a pocket of space behind his head. It moved with him, and the opening was so small that a hair could not brush through it. It essentially moved them in another dimension, but kept them nearby. Harry could still feel, and draw power from them. This, he found, was the secret to Merlin's great power.

Merlin had been a powerful wizard to start with, more powerful than Dumbledore for certain, but he had also been smart. While power was not everything, he knew it played a large factor in duels both with and without wands. To that end, he had spent years doing nothing but pouring almost all his energy into these crystals he had bought, until almost dead. It always took three days worth of energy to fill a crystal. He had filled hundreds. In the end, it had not been an enemy to kill him. It had been himself, as he attempted an extremely difficult spell on low power levels to get rid of a powerful enemy for eternity.

Now, a week later, Harry and Moody were in the library searching for something. Despite Moody's support, he treated Harry like a leader, a general of some sort. He missed people who had treated him as a friend. He liked moody, and was very fond of him however. So, in this respect, they had taken on their most immediate project. Harry's memories from Merlin showed him that dark magic could be undone if enough was known about the spell used. Moody prided himself on his memory, and provided information on the curses used to take out his leg, eye, and scar him up. Harry took one of the potions from the Founder's vault, one of the three he had refused to comment on. It permanently helped the drinker to remember everything in their memories. In addition, anything the user read or saw was retained forever, in mint condition so to speak. Harry did not have to read something to remember it. He had only to glance at the page and move on.

In the end, they found a way to re-grow his leg, and heal his scars. The only thing they were reluctant to fix was the eye. They knew how, but if they messed up, it could permanently damage both eyes, and his brain. In the end, they decided it better to replace his magical eye with a normal one that did the same thing. It gave Moody the appearance of one ten years younger, and unrecognizable totally without the damages. In return, Moody was forever thankful, and swore to himself that he would always protect Harry no matter what happened. With all fixed, he could also return to the force, something he desperately wanted for a long time. Harry and Moody agreed that they would go to Diagon Alley soon to get out in public again, and enjoy some fresh air. The fact that Hogwarts started in little over a month and a half did not escape either notice. It was during a moment of sitting in the sitting room reading quietly that a post owl drifted in from the rafters, where an open spot for them was situated. It held a single letter, which Harry opened quickly.

 _Mr. Potter,_

 _We have found the perpetrator's evidence on both vaults. We do have nearly enough evidence to convict BOTH criminals. Please come in tomorrow, at ten a.m. sharp, to discuss these revelations if you are available._

 _Griphook_

 _Account Manager, Gringotts Bank_

Harry smiled grimly. Putting his monetary worries over Lucius Malfoy and Albus Dumbledore would go a long way. He passed the letter to Moody, who nodded before handing it back. Harry took it to his office and filed it away in a filing cabinet on the wall in a file labeled "Gringotts, Evidence" and left for the sitting room once more. Tomorrow would be very interesting…

 **Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office**

It was a bad day to be Albus Dumbledore. He had spent all morning after an emergency order meeting to tell all about the missing Harry Potter situation, listening to howlers from a concerned Molly Weasley. He would have to renew his control curse on her again. The woman's love for Harry was fast becoming more inconvenient than convenient. On top of this, he had went to draw money from Harry's trust vault only to be shunted from office to office, before leaving empty-handed in frustration.

To top it all off, an owl swooped in from the Ministry. It seemed Fudge, the incompetent fool, was about to be sacked and needed his help. Fudge was a useful plant in the Minister position, but his usefulness was fast drying up. Albus needed him there, however, if his plans to rise in fame were to see the light. He needed an easily replaced fool, not a competent Minister. He was about to floo to the Ministry when his floo flared green, and a very ill-looking and concerned Remus Lupin stepped out. Control curses were nearly impossible to hold on a magical creature like a werewolf, and as such Albus had separated him from Harry, and any relating information so he would not get in his way with his obvious loyalty to the boy. Albus could see in the man's eyes that he knew Harry was missing though, despite Albus not having invited him to the order meeting for that express reason.

He sat back down as the werewolf paced back and forth in front of his desk, ranting at the top of his lungs in anger. He rubbed his temples silently, feeling an oncoming headache. Yes, it was a bad day to be Albus Dumbledore. Deep, deep inside, he quelled the tiny voice asking why he was doing all this in the first place…

 **Unknown Location**

"Odd. I can no longer see the boy. It is frustrating. I can see the other fools following along as we need them to, the ministry, Dumbledore, the weak fool Voldemort, but the boy could ruin all if nothing works as we planned. Why is it, when I asked you to locate Harry Potter, you could not do so?" A cruel voice asked the man kneeling and cowering before him. This man wore a set of steel armor, and had long, black hair, flowing down to his back.

"Forgive me, sir. He is in a much protected location, and we cannot find it. The location disarms even the best of our locator charms." The man said in a fearful tone.

"I did not ask for excuses. I asked for a location. Find it for me, or you will receive a place of honor with your head joining the others who have failed me." The cruel voice said as its owner stood from his throne. He walked down the steps, coming to a rest in front of his fearful servant. Taking a hand and pulling the man's chin up to meet his black eyes fully, he sent a weak probe at the man's mind. The man screamed in agony as his defenses were ripped apart, and his mind was carefully misconstrued and reconstructed again. He would have results, whether by this servant or the next. He needed them if his plans were to continue…

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Once again, thanks for keeping up with this story! Now at 2,500 views, this story is one of the best I have written to date I think. Many did not even make it to , and that disappointed me a bit. Now, on to the special reviewers of the day!**

 **Once again, here I will mention reviews that either posed a question, or were especially noticeable to me for whatever reason. If you are not mentioned, I apologize for the oversight, and am thankful for your reviews as well.**

 **To Sennybee98, for a very keen mind. You have accurately guessed one of those things in your review. I won't say which, but it will become apparent in time. If I answered which was right, that would be telling…I will say that you need to think along the lines of how a powerful wizard could have such an obvious disease, be under control, or be manipulative in such a way that no one else notices. I enjoy your reviews, and ask that you keep them coming. I have come to look forward to this information game we seem to be playing. Here is another riddle for you to puzzle over. What do you think Harry will do with the gems?**

 **To lizziemarie0529, nesciamema, serenityselena, and Scrappy8, for multiple reviews, and for actually giving a reason behind the pairing desires. I enjoy knowing I have people who regularly review on my story, scrappy8, and for that I thank you. It lets me know people actually read what I am writing. Lizzie and nesciamema, I think I may be starting to agree with you slightly. Harry/Ginny was a great romance in the series, proving that if you love someone, you will wait for them no matter how long it takes or what the problem is. I am experiencing this myself, and I can see the torture Harry went through in canon to wait for such a beautiful young woman. Hopefully my mention of Molly in this chapter will clear up how they may end up meeting. Serenityselena, thank you for keeping up and I am glad you are enjoying it.**

 **To ArthurShade, it came to my attention I missed naming you last chapter. For that I apologize. I thank you for the numerous reviews stating how much you enjoy the chapters, and how much you look forward to the next. I also thank you for not throwing it in my face that I overlooked the fact that you had given me multiple reviews as well.**

 **To all my other readers, thank you for reading and reviewing. This is turning into a great adventure, and writing it is nothing less than enjoyable. I am glad you all rose to the challenge of naming a soul bonding partner and encourage that to continue. The decision will be announced within the next chapter or two. Also, the Dumbledore situation has a few people stumped. This will be resolved later in the story, but I will keep dropping hints along the way.**

 **Remember folks, this story will have a darker Harry. For this to occur, dark situations need to happen. This story has a dark theme to it, and the continuation may surprise you. It has to get worse before it gets better. For those that will be pondering over why Moody did not get a new eye, I mentioned he got a normal looking replacement to show that realistically, even with magic, some things are better off left alone. Maybe they could have mended it, or maybe Moody would end blind and dumb. It was better to take what they could, and hope for the best.**

 **As always please read and review! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and those to come.**

 **Pet Peeves for today:**

 **Wanted to leave you guys a pet peeve or two of mine for the day. I won't do this often, but when I do it is a serious problem I see recurring often.**

 **Firstly, spell check, guys. Many great stories are out there that I was unable to finish because I could not comprehend them. I understand some misplaced, and misspelled words, but every sentence cannot have them or nothing makes sense.**

 **Lastly, would it kill people to put in a line break of some kind? This is where an author jumps from one subject to another with no apparent reason for the change. For example, how much sense is there in this:**

" _ **Crucio, Wormtail!" said Voldemort, sitting in his throne.**_

 _ **Harry smiled, sitting with Ginny on a picnic blanket, feeding her from the crackers in the basket.**_

 **You must put something in between this to make more sense. A line, if nothing else, to show we have moved to a new subject. I jump subjects in the story myself, but I put bold headers in front of the new subject so as to try to assist my readers in making sense of what is happening.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six:**

Harry awoke the next morning in his overly comfortable, overly large bed. He laid still as he thought of what he needed to do today. He had the meeting at Gringotts over the thievery in his accounts, a small bit of research to do, some shopping to accomplish, and there was something about Moody wanting to take him with the man to the ministry so he could reapply as an auror. He didn't exactly want to step foot in the ministry again ever, but he knew Moody wanted this more than anything. Besides, Harry could think of quite a number of things he needed from the ministry, including getting his apparition license now that he was considered an adult and had no underage magic restrictions. He looked at his clock beside his bed. It was 4:30 in the morning. He used to wake up at 5, but since the inheritance ritual and the power he had received, he seemed to need less sleep than most.

Harry went to the bathroom and bathed for a good hour, soaking in the water as he finished planning the day out. By the time he was out and dressed in his black gold-trimmed robes, it was 5:30 and he knew by experience that Dobby and Winky were already cooking breakfast, so he made his way down to the dining room and sat at one of the smaller tables. Moody came in about ten minutes later and sat across from him, scratching his chin quietly. Dobby popped in not a minute later and sat down a platter of eggs, bacon, and sausage links in front of both of them with coffee and milk to go wash it down before popping back out just as quickly. As they started to eat, Harry spoke,

"Well Moody, I know you want me to go with you to the Ministry today, but we will have to see if time permits after the schedule at Gringotts has been fulfilled, and we have finished shopping for school supplies. If so, when we arrive I am more than willing to let you go do your own thing, while I talk to a few people about a couple things I need to see done."

Moody thought about it for a moment, and came to the conclusion that although the safety of Harry mattered a lot to him, Harry was considered an adult now. Besides, he was happy that Harry valued his input on the activities of the day. Over the summer they had been growing quite close, almost as a father and son relationship. He nodded to Harry quietly, and they finished eating their meal in peace. When they were finished, they both stood and cast a disillusionment charm over themselves. They walked out of the grounds to the gate to enjoy the view before apparating. While Harry had granted them permission to apparate through the wards, sometimes they enjoyed walking, and it took far less energy that way as well. When they reached the gate, they apparated into Diagon Alley, and set off towards Gringotts Bank.

Harry and Moody both succumbed to the newer security features Gringotts had begun using recently and was admitted into the bank in short order. By the time they hit the main hall, Griphook awaited them patiently. After a short bow and a gesture to follow him, he took off down a long hall very quickly without a word. They arrived in his office, where the door was shut, the dull blue shimmer of wards coming and fading into and out of existence as it did, and he ushered them into seats before speaking in a quick, low tone.

"Lord Potter, Mr. Moody, I apologize for the quick welcome and the entire bustle, but we have discovered the perpetrators behind the mysterious deductions from your vaults. I can safely say we have sufficient proof for all of these claims. The trust vault is where we shall start with your permission?" Griphook looked to Harry, who nodded, before he continued.

"It seems that from both tracing the money, and requests made yesterday, that Albus Dumbledore has been assured as the one stealing from the Trust Vault. Also, on that front, we have noticed that it seems as if it was shunted from vault to vault through transfers under different names in an attempt to cover the money trail. The overall number of transfers was done through Albus Dumbledore, his order, and on occasion the school funds set up by him. In the end, it always came back to two separate accounts. One in the esteemed headmasters' name, the other in the name of the Weasley Family, with Dumbledore listed as a beneficiary."

Harry gasped in shock for a moment over hearing that. Dumbledore's involvement, although rather suspiciously lacking in subtlety, was not that surprising, and he had already been told that. Hearing that people he had considered his own family was involved, cut him to the core. For a brief moment, he lost control, shimmering with all of his newfound power. Thankfully he regained control quickly, and nodded for Griphook to continue.

Griphook, after the nod, shuffled a few sheets of parchment around a moment before speaking. "It seems to me, my lord, that a silent approach would be more deadly. " Harry motioned for him to hold a moment, a smile on his face, and Griphook looked at him curiously.

"Griphook, I insist you drop this lord stuff, and simply call me Harry. We shall be seeing one another often enough and you are honest enough with me that I am much more comfortable calling you a friend and being in your company in a more relaxed manner." Harry said with conviction.

Griphook was shocked for a moment, but then smiled toothlessly. "Your generosity does you credit, Harry, and I thank you. Now, as I said before, a silent approach is better in this case. My counsel is to wait until he has mucked everything up once more as he did today with all his questions, and then press charges. If you do this, I can promise that you shall have all your money he stole, plus more. The exact opposite of what I propose for the second theft case."

"The second theft case is from the Hogwarts vaults. Out of the school fund, as is allowed due to the paperwork of the account, the Hogwarts Board of Governors has been drawing out their pay monthly. As such, lately their salaries have been ridiculously large! Also, they take money out for Ministry office rental space, staff hiring, unnecessary amounts of equipment, and much more. This is all being signed for by a Lord Lucius Malfoy. In this case, I strongly suggest disbanding the board. Most times it is more helpful to run the school, but as heir to the founder's, you may lay ownership to the castle, as you may assume the titles and duties of High Lord of Hogwarts. In that case, the board would cease to exist, you would be the highest authority of Hogwarts, and as such you would get to choose who gets to make which decisions. Even the Headmaster would be under you. Also, any stolen money or items will be returned to the vaults, which can only be accessed by you or whom you select to do so."

Harry thought everything over and glanced at Moody. Moody appeared to be shocked about Albus being confirmed as a thief still, so Harry knew he would receive no answer from there. He nodded to Griphook and said, "Yes, I believe your ways to deal with these issues would be best. I would like to state for the record, that I have no experience running a school, and therefore am likely to make a terrible mess of things."

Griphook clapped his hands together loudly. "Nonsense, Harry. If nothing else, experience from the Founders and Merlin shall guide you along the way. Now, I shall immediately owl the Board, if you will just sign these papers. Also, the moment we have sufficient evidence against Dumbledore, we will owl you immediately." He passed a stack of parchment, a quill, and an inkpot to Harry, who immediately began reading and signing all the required documents. When he finished, Moody and Griphook stood, and he followed suit. Farewells were exchanged with many bows and thanks, and they were seen out the door.

Harry and Moody walked down to the shops, and stopped in nearly all of them, excluding Weasley Wizard Wheezes. Harry wasn't ready to face them yet, as he did not know who was in on stealing his money. He bought all of his school supplies, plus a few extra amenities. He paid for a standing order on all ingredients, rare and standard, as well as the same for any and all current and future books to be mailed to him via owl. He also stopped by the robe shop, but found nothing there of better quality than what he currently owned. Harry was preoccupied, but remembered one his reasons for wanting to go to the ministry, he purchased several items for other classes as well. With his knowledge from Merlin and the Founders, he could probably pass something beyond NEWT level fairly easily without studying further, but he wanted to try to keep much a secret. By pretending to have studied over the summer, he could get away with retaking some OWLs.

After shopping, Moody took Harry by the arm and tandem apparated them to the Ministry atrium. There were thousands of people there, and hardly anyone stopped to take in the two wizards who had apparated into their midst. Moody led the way to the security desk, where a friendly looking, pretty witch checked over Harry's wand and cleared them through to lifts. Now that he had Merlin's memories of when the original Ministry was built, he knew that the lifts were also powered by imbedded crystals. Nearly no one at the ministry even knew this anymore, as no one existed who knew enough about magic to imbue their power in anything, to their knowledge. Moody bypassed most of everything and entered a lift with Harry. No one spared Moody a glance, even as they got out at the Auror Headquarters.

Harry nodded to Moody, who nodded back before exiting and heading to the office of the Head of MLE, Amelia Bones. Harry continued on the lift until they came to the Department of Education and Testing. Harry continued on until he found a door labeled "OWL Testing." Upon entering, Harry found more doors lined the walls, and in the back was an office with a wooden door in place of stone doors. Here he entered, and was met by a harried looking woman running an office full of at least fifteen kids and adults. Taking a seat after putting his name down on the sheet of paper on the clipboard, he took to observing the other occupants of the room.

One by one they left the room as their name was called. Bit by bit he gathered how the tests were ran as he overheard each lecture given to each departing person. The testees were given an hour for each written exam they had to take, and were individually given times for each practical, which was held in a separate room. There were no requirements to take these tests, but for NEWT testing, they were each given a set of required OWLs they must have passed to take the tests. Unlike they were told at Hogwarts, NEWT exams could be taken any time in your life, as well as OWLs, so long as you were officially considered an adult or had guardian permission. This excited Harry, because it meant he could set it up so he would have already passed his NEWTs, and all he would have to do is inform the teachers if he decided to return to school, which he was considering not doing. Not passing the exams never crossed his mind, as he had the four founders and Merlin's knowledge backing his own, as well as all of the research he had been doing over the summer.

Though he may be the richest wizard on record, he still carried the desire to work for a living. Not only did he want to earn his keep, but also wanted to earn a good reputation. His name was called and he walked over to the waiting witch with the clipboard. She eyed him speculatively and nodded, satisfied that he was indeed Harry Potter the moment she saw his scar.

"Lord Potter, glad you are here today. Tell me, why do you want to take OWLs? It shows here that you have taken them already. Do you wish to take others, or possibly are you here to retake those you have previously?"

"I wish to retake all exams I have taken, especially as I have yet to receive the results, as well as adding a few and dropping Divination. The overall tests I'd like to take are: Transfiguration, Potions, DADA, Charms, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies, History of Magic, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Occlumency, Legilimancy, and Herbology."

"That is nearly every OWL subject, my lord, are you sure about this?"

"I am as sure as I can be, Ma'am."

"In that case, take this form and head on out to the hallway and to room twelve. They will be expecting you. Good luck on the exams, Lord Potter." The woman said. She handed him a form, and waved him over to the hallway. He walked out into the hallway and continued into the testing room where, after handing over the document and the man staring at him in wonder for a moment, he was handed several testing packets and directed to a sectioned off desk and given a quill and several inkpots. He was given four hours to finish. According to testing regulation he was to be given twelve hours, one for each test, but according to law they were only supposed to allow a maximum of four hours testing time before a break. Realistically with his retained knowledge, he only needed one, perhaps two.

The questions on the written exams were simple for him, and within an hour and a half he had finished, so he expanded on a few of the answers so they would not be able to think he had cheated in any way. When two hours had passed, he turned in the forms to the examiner. The man raised an eyebrow at him mockingly, sure he had cheated. When the man sent it off for grading, he showed Harry to the practice rooms. Examiners lined the rooms in their own areas, blocked off by separating walls and doors.

For charms, he had to levitate items, change their colors, and cast a small healing charm on himself. In Ancient Runes, he had to identify, draw, and show how to properly use three runes. Transfiguration saw him changing desks to tables, tables to chairs, and conjuring a chair from nothing. History of Magic did not have a practical, and Muggle Studies had him pointing out a few uses of muggle appliances. Occlumency and Legilimancy had him trying to break into a, and shield his own, mind. It was simple and easy for him, especially given his power. Then he was given the ingredients to make the Draught of Living Death, and he had to identify the uses of some ingredients in the potion. For DADA, they had mixed it with Care of Magical Creatures for the first half, with the tester countering certain creatures thereby earning two grades if taking both tests, and the second half had part of a magically expanded room simulating a dueling obstacle course. Herbology saw him ending his tests by caring for Mandrakes.

When the testing ended, he was sent into the lobby in front of the Department of Education's Head of department office. He waited nearly an hour, in which time Moody joined him, and was ushered into the office, alone, while Moody awaited him outside. Moody had rejoined the Auror force, thanks to the medical care he had received, and on a very enthusiastic welcome by Head of Magical Law Enforcement Amelia Bones. Harry sat in the office and was just wondering what was going on when an elderly looking witch swept in and took the seat across the desk, shuffling a few folders, and spoke to him bluntly.

"Lord Potter, I just received intelligence that you were testing today. The Ministry was recently updated on your status as an adult, as well as your bloodline status. As a result, I wanted to personally inform you fo your results, as well as options available to you. For the first time since the testing of Albus Dumbledore, someone has passed every test, with the exception of Divination, with an Outstanding. As a matter of fact, you have even surpassed Albus' test results. We examined the tests again and found no hint of cheating. I am not sure how this was accomplished, but it does give you the option, as an adult, to take your NEWT exams tomorrow or any day after. Adults may take them anytime, but students must take the required classes. This puts you in a unique position of both. As a result due to your grades on these exams, we decided to give you the option. If you do, then you may still continue school if you wish and you will not have to take the exams, or you may graduate early should the grades come out as a majority pass. As an adult you also have the option to drop out and not take the tests either. This is all up to you, and should you have a decision ready, I shall notify the appropriate people."

"I believe I would like to take the NEWT exams, and come to a decision about school later, if that is acceptable." Harry replied. The witch, known as Ms. Griselda Marshbanks, nodded and handed him a form to fill out, along with a quill. The form stated the following available exams: Potions, DADA, Charms, Healing, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Herbology, Magical Theory, Warding, Curse-Breaking, Spell Creation, Flying, Accounting, Divination, and Enchanting.

This made 18 available exams. Harry chose 17 of them, leaving out Divination, and signed his name on bottom before handing it back. Griselda raised her eyebrows in astonishment before nodding. "You may return tomorrow or any day after you receive the proper testing documents tonight, Lord Potter, to take the exams. I shall notify the proper office immediately."

With that statement, she bowed him out of the office, a copy of his OWL results in his hand. After exiting, he handed them to Moody to look over as they left the Ministry building. Moody was amazed at the results and proudly clapped Harry on the shoulder as they walked out. Tomorrow, the Auror department had a small surprise for the boy, and he was sure Potter would enjoy it. In the meantime, they would celebrate the grades tonight. They both apparated away as they passed the gates, both of them heading back to Phoenix Manor for the evening. Tomorrow, they would return for testing and something a little more…

 **Unknown Location**

"Everything continues as planned. Do you have the blades, my servant?" A cruel voice asked of the figure kneeling in front of him. The figure continued to look at the ground as he answered in a loud voice, deep with power.

"Yes, my lord. We have all of them crated up and ready to move, just as you requested. With luck, they shall be shipped out and ready within the month."

"Good, keep me informed on this. You have made me very pleased with your efforts lately. Continue this way, and I promise you everything you ever asked for. For now, your reward is here." The cruel-voiced man on the throne clapped his hands. Two servants, one in a black robe, the other in very well cared for armor, dragged out a young girl no older than twenty. She was forcibly freed of her clothing and dropped on the floor in front of the still bowing servant as the lord spoke once more in his evil tone, "Kill her, and make it good. Before you do, I expect to see some fun had, as I have been very bored of late. Make it good, my servant, and more rewards shall come."

From far away, Harry Potter turned over in his sleep, nightmares plaguing him constantly as the cruel lord watched the girl scream in horror, pleasure coursing through his veins…

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Welcome back once more to the Author's Notes! We have now surpassed 4,000 views, and are steadily heading to 5,000! Now, I must apologize for the delay in the update. A few things have been hitting hard, and I had ultimate revenge wreaked upon me in the form of writer's block.**

 **Now, the special reviewer thanks!**

 **Thanks to ArthurShade and Nesciamema for repeated reviews. They have faithfully reviewed multiple times now and help make me want to continue the story. Nesciameme, hang in there and the unknown POV will be coming clear very shortly.**

 **Special thanks to smallwjl, for an enthusiastic review.**

 **A final special thanks to Keyter Derton for a good, long, and solid review. I am glad you found time to review again, and especially glad that you took the time to tell me what you liked and wanted to see in the story. Reviews such as this assist me in making plot decisions, and sometimes even change them. I am glad so many people like the story now as well, and hope they keep with it as it moves on. That said, this will have one, if not several, sequels. I am glad to see you are open-minded about the plot, and can tell you it will keep many guessing as to where it will end. It will be a very long story, with many original characters and problems, as well as many new unique problems and plots.**

 **To all readers, thanks for reading the story and keeping with it! I will endeavor to keep a better update schedule, and am very happy to say that the story will only get more interesting as we go. I left clues in this chapter that point toward the future plots that will occur soon.**

 **As always please read and review! The views and reviews make the story worth continuing, as well as helping me to make various plot decisions. I cannot please all readers, and the story decisions are overall mine as the author, but it helps to know what folks want. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **There are no Pet Peeves this week, and as such I shall be introducing two new endings to the author's notes! These will be Bloopers and the Updateless List! Credit for these ideals goes to BOB and ALYX! These two are amazing authors' and deserve some looking at. I quite enjoy their story Sunset over Britain, and suggest looking it up.**

 **Okay, the Updateless list does not need explaining, but for those who do need the help understanding it, the rules are simple. To make the list, a story must 1** **st** **have not been updated in over two months, and 2** **nd** **, must be created by someone not in uniform or not in hospital, and thus having a very good excuse not to update. The point of this is to annoy the author until an update is made.**

 **The Bloopers section will be mistakes made by authors that spell check does not pick up. Today we will use the Updateless list!**

 **THE UPDATELESS LIST:**

 **Today is from my own story, Survival, which has not been updated in a while and will probably be taken down and revamped!**

 **The url to the story is:**  
 **s/11103633/1/Survival**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven:**

Harry had been lying in bed since awaking at four. That was nearly two hours ago now, and he sighed before getting up to bathe and dress. He had been pondering what to do about the school. He could return as a student, press the issue as the owner, or never return. He shook his meanderings off as he finished dressing in his black robe for the day. He walked out and down to the dining area to eat breakfast with moody. Moody was expected at the ministry by 8 that morning, and Harry figured it was a good enough time for him to accompany him and take his tests.

Once they had eaten an excellent breakfast, courtesy of the elves, they walked out and down the drive, both in plain black wizarding robes. Moody took Harry by the arm and tandem-apparated them directly to the ministry from the gates, landing in the atrium. They separated then, Moody to his new office to set it up and check in, and Harry to the testing floor. When Harry arrived, he had an hour before NEWT testing was scheduled to begin, so he went to the apparition testing area. Normally, you had to be 17 to get an apparition license, but since he was considered an adult, he was an exception to the rule. It took all of fifteen minutes, ten of which he spent filling out forms. He was ordered to apparate to several places in a room, and did so flawlessly. He also found he could silently apparate if he chose, but kept the ability hidden. Once he had his license to apparate, he put it in a folder with his OWL results, and headed over to the NEWT testing area.

He sat in the office with the rest of the testees, and awaited his name to be called. When it was, he was again handed his written tests, given an allotted time, and shown to a desk. Although he had all of his previous knowledge, as well as Merlin and the Founders, he had never actually gotten to practice most of the magic on this exam. He had the power and knowledge, but wondered if he had the skill. The written tests were absurdly easy to him. Once he finished, he looked over all of his answers, and brought his tests up to be graded. He was once more escorted to a practice area. Here, he retook all his tests. Once more, they were far too easy. They were challenging strength wise, but really if you knew what to do and how to do it, then the tests were just exercises. Once he had started, the knowledge of how to do something came to him almost immediately.

When he had finished, he was taken to the office with Griselda again. She rounded the desks, and wordlessly showed him that he had received full marks on every exam. Even Dumbledore for all his knowledge had never received all Outstandings. He felt like a cheat at first, but then realized that although he had not learned it all himself, that he had not asked for it either. It wasn't exactly like someone was telling him the answers; he was just using the tools available to him. Madam Marshbanks told him the grades were truly magnificent. She then asked him once more about Hogwarts. He had thought about this beforehand, and now knew his answer. He looked at her much more calmly than he felt.

"Madam Marshbanks, I do not have the knowledge of how to run a school, nor do I have the experience to do so. I do, however, realize what is being done to the school, and how much more potential is there for it. I may lack the experience and know how, but I can hire people I trust to help me there. I plan to take my inheritance, and become High Lord of Hogwarts. I do ask this remain a secret though, until I am ready to reveal it myself."

"Very well, Lord Potter. I shall endeavor to make the change as swift and easy as I can for you. Normally the day someone tells me they can do better than Albus Dumbledore, I would laugh them out of my office with directions to St. Mungos, but you do not strike me as a fool or liar." Griselda replied, and all but bowed him out of her office. He left with no small amount of relief at having one ally in this decision, and went in search of Moody.

He found Moody in the Auror offices just as he had expected. What he did not expect, was the loud "SURPRISE!" that greeted him as he entered. Moody had arranged a party in honor of him passing his NEWTS. It seemed as though, private though it was, his grades had been displayed on a banner hanging on the wall next to an enlarged picture of him. This room held nearly everyone of importance in the Ministry it seemed, although he was unsure how Moody had arranged it all as quickly as he had. This puzzled Harry as he shook hand after hand.

In truth, Moody had arranged this since yesterday. He had known Harry would pass, but not this well. Everyone had wanted to meet Harry Potter, but no one had been prepared for how intelligent the boy was. He was charming too, and continued to effortlessly sway people to his side as the minutes went by. Moody watched him carefully as Horace approached him. Horace was an unspeakable head of department. There were two sides to the unspeakable department. The unspeakable research department, who researched for their other department, as well as the Ministry as a whole, and there was the other side. The other side was Hit Wizards. They were wet work assets to the Ministry. Assassins, torturers, investigators, soldiers, and general black op agents. They were highly paid, and in fact, were secret to even most of the Ministry.

Moody had been a junior auror when first approached by them. He loved being an Auror, and had turned them down, but still worked with their department as an Auror on more occasions than anyone else in the Ministry. Meanwhile, during these thoughts, Horace was telling Harry about the whole thing himself, offering him a job there. Harry wasn't sure, till Horace mentioned the pay and benefits. He'd get paid a regular pay of five thousand gold weekly, as well as ten percent of any objects, or profit made from them, found directly related to any of his contracts. This appealed to Harry greatly, and he agreed to show up for testing first thing the following Monday. He may be rich, but he had a feeling that he would need a lot more money before this was over.

What he had not considered, but did so as they left the party, was that the High Lord of Hogwarts made twenty percent profits from tuition fees, school profits, and a bi-weekly salary of twenty-five thousand gold from the school fund, transferred automatically. He had also not considered how he would run a school and a black op job at the same time. For now though, he consented to see if he even made it through testing. Through his founder and Merlin knowledge, none of them had a job even similar to this one. This would be a new experience entirely. To that end, he shored up on his occlumency knowledge as soon as they returned home, so he could control his emotions better, and hide anything about himself anyone in such a department might try to steal from his mind. It did not do to go into a department with highly intelligent, skillful, and powerful people without being prepared properly for any possible consequences, his Slytherin side told him.

Although he had previous practice and new knowledge from the founders, Occlumency was difficult. Moody took pity on him and offered to practice with him. After gentle explanations and brutal mind attacks for the next full day, Harry not only succeeded in blocking his mind, he used his power to take it to new levels. He had a natural talent for it, they discovered in the end.

Moody taught him how to use it to block his mind; but books and the founder's knowledge taught him to use it to block pain, to organize his mind, and how to use it without thinking about it. He started out with what he called a liar's palace. It was a library in which he filed his information. Every time someone else tried to read one of the books, it was wiped blank. It was a genius idea to Moody, who only used a mental shield wall. It was a defense so well prepared that he wasn't actually defending. He didn't deny access to his mind; he just filed things so nothing could be found. They couldn't touch his memories, use his fears, or control his body unless they found the right book that went to that specific thing.

Moody was further amazed when Harry improved it. Once he had it down so well that even he himself could not do anything without knowing what to access and how to get to it quickest, he started setting it up harshly. Fog blanketed his whole mind, which was set up in a corridor with four doors. The corridor was so foggy it was hard to see anything, and the doors were changed every day to lead to a new place. He used the fog not only to confuse his enemies, but to control his emotions. He let them fade into the fog, keeping his face neutral until he chose to let an emotion loose. He kept his childhood and peaceful memories in the library, behind one of the doors.

His control over all the parts of his body was put in another room. This room, once you walked in, was protected by fire. He had a book in the middle of the room. The book was indexed so that you could point to a part of the body, and activate control over it. In front of the book was a spirit version of him, ruffling the pages and pointing to various things. Behind the spirit, was a ring of fire around him and the book. It was black fire, and instantly badly burned whoever touched it. The longer anyone but he and the spirit in his body stood inside the ring, the hotter it burned until their mind was ejected when they could no longer focus.

Inside the third room was his knowledge of magic. When you walked in, you walked into complete darkness. It was swirling around the room in wisps to represent his image of what magic looks like when wild. The knowledge was in each bubble wisp. If any but himself touched it however, it overloaded all of the senses at once and changed the rooms around, ejecting the person into the corridor once more. It was the least harmful, but took the most cleverness to breach.

The fourth room was his fears and deepest secrets. Anything in there was strictly off limits to all but himself. When you walked in, it was pitch black and you fell, because there was no floor. You fell right into water. This water was freezing cold, in the middle of the night, with waves rolling in all directions. The secrets were underneath your feet, buried so deep in the water that the pressure would crush you. Not only that, but the water was a memory potion. As you were touching the water, it slowly made you forget what you were doing, until you withdrew from his mind. Spending long enough in the water resulted in permanent memory loss.

Not only did all of these defenses eject someone from his mind, they were only there as a backup. First, the person breaching his mind would have to find their way through the mist and break through each mental door. Moody was pleased with this all, as he now no longer worried over someone breaking into the boy's mind. Moody loved this house, and cared deeply for the boy, but he knew he could take care of himself now. Moody felt as if he was freeloading, and had arranged to move out shortly, and buy his own family home once he had earned enough. That should give him a week to pack, as Aurors were paid weekly.

Harry did not want him to move really, but neither did he mind. He understood where Moody was coming from, and it would be nice to have his inherited house to himself for a while, but for the elves obviously. He wouldn't have to conform to a house guest, and could do as he pleased. He was getting even more into potions now that he had the knowhow from Slytherin. It seemed interesting to him. He thought that he may eventually look into becoming a Potions Master. He also started using his office in the library. He set up the filing cabinets to reflect different parts of his life. One was for his Hogwarts business, one for his other possible job, one for his personal interests such as potions, one for his personal experiments on anything, and one for his Gringotts business. He also began sending letters to people that Griselda Marshbanks had been kind enough to put him in contact with. They were people he would need to run the school.

He had contacts in Gringotts, and had already began the banking side of things, and he made contact with food sales people, the Department of Education in the Ministry, the Board of Hogwarts which he was disbanding soon, and the other international magical school Headmaster and Headmistresses. He became sort of writing pals with the other Heads of the other schools. He also got in touch with several writers for the Daily Prophet, of which he had a major shareholder interest in. He had ensured Rita would not bother him again by firing her. Upon hearing who Harry was, meaning his boss in effect, the manager had quickly dropped her, and the newspaper began actually printing the factual news.

Harry went to bed that night satisfied with his weeks' work. Tomorrow, Moody moved out, and he got tested for his new job, only leaving two weeks until school started. He was content with what was going on for once in his life, and had decided to let things go as they would for the time being. The investigation on the thievery on him had been concluded and the evidence awaited his decisions. Tomorrow, after testing, he would decide what to do about those things. For now, Harry Potter was happy.

 **Unknown Location**

"Well, the boy is doing better than I thought. Perhaps we should end him quicker than I had planned. I had planned to end him myself, but we cannot risk him getting too high up, and discovering our manipulations. What do you think, my love?" A cruel, strong voice said. Its owner was standing by the window at night, looking down at the dark city below him from a wall window. A naked, stunning, teenaged looking girl climbed off the bed and walked up behind the man, wrapping her arms around him and kissing his neck in the back.

"End him, love, before he becomes a threat. We could crush him in moments, but only if we were there. We cannot arrive, if he messes everything up. The decision lies with you, love. Now come back to bed, I'm feeling rather lonely tonight."

The cruel man smiled evilly as he turned and slapped the girl, and she fell back onto the bed. The girl looked at him evenly, with no expression. He had taught her well over the millennia. She may be his wife, and he loved her in his own possessive way, but where he was from women were useful only for company, and producing heirs. They made no decisions unless their husband was absent, and they only advised their husband in private, never questioning him in public. He was crueler than most husbands, and a terribly powerful being, and as such she learned not to complain. His guards and subjects learned long ago not to cross him. He planned to take over the universe long ago, and gain more subjects and slaves, but that was why he had been banned from earth when he had tried to return thousands of years ago by a little upstart named Merlin.

The man had gotten lucky. He had almost overpowered him when he finished his spell. His friends had been distracting him, and he had been having too much fun toying with them to care what the little man was doing. The spell he used only worked one time in a thousand, and took nearly divine power to use, but he had been unlucky. Now though, he would return, stronger than before, and would finish what he had started. He kept the smile on his face as he crawled into bed with the girl, and as he entered her, he was still thinking on how to use his tool Voldemort to the best possible advantage. As useful as Tom Riddle was as a tool, he had no intention of letting him outlive his usefulness. He was going to end him as soon as he was finished with him. For now, Voldemort had one part yet to play. The seed had been planted, and Voldemort would seek to learn to summon him, and would attempt to control him. He had no hope of success, and once he was done, he would be a good puppet and get himself killed off, luring Earth into a false sense of security. Then, while they were weak, he would gather his followers and strike…

 **Author's Notes:**

 **These will be brief, as I soon have to get off the computer to attend to other things in reality, and as such will contain no new info on the Updateless list, no special recognition, nor the pet peeve section. Sorry about that, and I will make up for it next chapter.**

 **I do apologize for the delay. Writers block struck again, as well as reality. I had intended to complete this early, and knew what I wanted the chapter to contain, but could not word it properly. The next chapter is in the works, and while I am unsure when it will be released, I feel confident in saying before New Years.**

 **I hope everyone enjoyed last chapter, as there were little reviews to go by, and I really hope you enjoy this one. I happily detailed out one of my favorite magical ideals: Occlumency. I am fascinated by it, and tried to take it to another level. Let me know if you liked, or disliked the stance I took on it with Harry. He complained of a headache, but should be fine…**

 **As always, thanks for views, reviews, and private messages. They were all appreciated. Please continue to read and keep up with the story, and feel free to review or inbox me with your ideals, and likes or dislikes with the story thus far. Things will be heating up next chapter. This one was more of a filler, but will be necessary to later chapters. If you like action, next chapter is for you.**

 **Also, there was a lemon in this chapter. If you do not like sexual scenes, this story may not be for you, as there will be a few. Not too many, but they will be semi-common. I will also say I am not sexist. The fact that the unknown enemy acts this way towards women is vital to the story, and should give more background on his character. Also, nearly every evil man I know of in stories acted this way, but I promise it is not to follow the norm. This has a major purpose in the story, and is part of the plot. Extra credit to those who can guess why, and those who can guess anything more about our mysterious enemy's personality or background. By now, some of the really genius and avid readers may have a small inkling of who he may be. If so, and if you are right, I hope this excites people, instead of putting them off.**

 **Anyway, hope you love it, romance and action next chapter! Please read and review as always!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight:**

Harry Potter woke up that morning feeling rejuvenated. His occlumency shields were still functioning properly, and he felt ready for the day. He bathed, dressed in his black combat robes, with a dragon-hide vest underneath, and he slipped his wand into its holster. He ate his last breakfast with Moody before the older man moved out, and they left the house, apparating for the Ministry together. They both didn't like the idea of not living together anymore, as it felt safer somehow, but they knew they couldn't live in fear forever.

They arrived at the ministry, and for the first time, Harry did not have to check in at the security desk. It seemed odd to him that people did not have to check in upon visiting if they were workers or becoming employed. Bit of a security failure there, to him. Harry went straight down to the department of mysteries. Once he had stepped out of the elevator, he shivered. It was colder down here, and while he liked the dark he did not like the memories that came with this place, and the dark made them more vivid. He made straight for the circular room, and upon his command it led him to the testing area he was asked to show up in.

He grew more and more depressed upon remembering what happened to Sirius here, but started growing more cheerful slightly at his reasons for being here. Horace met him at the entrance of the training area, but just as he was about to enter, his stomach plummeted as he heard a voice.

"Are we nearly done here yet?" Ginny Weasley's voice came from a room over, in the brain research area. Harry turned in shock, and ignored Horace's attempt to call him back as he sprinted off toward her voice. He wanted to know why they were here, and was abandoning his carefully prepared self-control for when he did confront them about his money. He skidded to a halt in front of the two adult Weasleys, accompanied by Ginny, who was sitting on a hospital-like bed with a man's wand connected to her temple.

"Harry?" Mr. Weasley's voice said in disbelief. All three members of the family were staring at him oddly. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he registered the fact that nobody would have expected _him_ to be back here again. He also registered a dim calling in the back of his mind, as if the department held something that was compelling him to come to it. Ignoring all of the above momentarily, he stared hard at Arthur, and opened his mouth to speak in an angry tone.

"Don't Harry me, Arthur. I respected you, all of you. Now I find that my money is steadily disappearing into a Weasley Family Vault at Gringotts? Is this how I get repaid for saving Ginny, Ron, and yourself on multiple occasions? Am I such a terrible person that you had to be bribed to be friendly to me?" Harry said, his voice growing more weak and angry as he spoke. As much as he intended to calmly deal with this, god damn it hurt! He didn't want to be rational and calm! He wanted to rage, scream, and hurt them like he felt hurt by their actions. He was ready to do just that, when the next sentence from Molly, coupled with her expression, stopped him.

"W-where are we? Arthur? Harry? Ginny, dear? Why are we in the department of mysteries?" Molly asked in a frightened tone. Her eyes were wide, and she was looking from one person to the next in confusion. Harry could tell it was a truly honest confusion. Arthur was torn. He looked confused about the whole situation, and upset by Harry's words. Arthur stepped forward and wrapped an arm around his wife.

"Don't worry dear, we are here because of the incident with Ginny and the chamber. They are searching her mind for details of how the mind of Tom Riddle works. She agreed, so we agreed, remember?" Here, he paused and looked to Harry uncertainly. "Harry, I've always thought of you as a son, and I want you to understand that I have no idea about any money stealing issues. I am sure you are telling the truth, but there must be a mix-up…"

"There isn't dear. It's all coming back now." Molly interrupted Arthur in a hushed tone. She looked at Harry with tears in her eyes as Ginny and the department worker watched with interest. "I'm so sorry, Harry dear. I never wanted to do it. I was walking by the bank close to your first year, and suddenly my mind went blank. I got the idea to go in the bank and I can't remember from there what happened, but when I left the bank I had a lot of gold. I panicked, and deposited it in our vault. From then on, I can never remember what happens when I enter the bank, to when I leave it. I can't remember any bank visits for the last five years. It must have been me taking out that money. I wouldn't have done it on my own, I swear to you. I love you like you were a Weasley too. I'm so sorry dear! I just don't know what happened!"

Molly broke off her tirade and began to sob into Arthur's shoulder uncontrollably. Harry hesitated, but then walked forward and hugged her. Arthur put his hand on the boy's shoulder, and watched as his wife sobbed and clung to Harry. Harry patted her back soothingly, and spoke. "I never wanted to believe you were all stealing from me. It sounded so bad when I was first told. Now, I know. It wasn't your fault. You may have stolen the money, but I've always offered to share with you all anyway, and it sounds to me like you were under the imperious, and trust me, I know just how compelling that could be. I forgive you. All of you."

"You don't understand how lucky of a day it was for our family when Ron chose to sit with you on the Express, Harry. I swear to you, I will find a way to pay ever Knut back to you. If you don't accept that, I will deposit the money myself. You are like our own son, Harry, and we would never steal from our children. Our fault or not, we were a part of it, and will pay our dues as such." Arthur said to him firmly. Molly stopped crying and wiped her eyes, looking at her husband lovingly. No one understood how Arthur really was the firm, unyielding husband when it counted. They mistook kindness for weakness. Deep down, Arthur was an intelligent and strong man. He always kept his word.

Harry nodded at the man, and composed himself as he turned to face Ginny. She was in a yellow sundress, and looked rather pretty to him.

"Hi, Ginny. The chamber incident was years ago, why are they just now searching your mind for this?"

"Hi, Harry. Fudge is being stupid, and the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones, asked us if I would be willing. It doesn't hurt, and I pretty much just sit here and answer questions about everything. They are doing it because the Ministry is forced to now believe you-know-who is back, and they want anything that may help us win. I don't see them getting anything though. He may have been in my mind, and I do see the benefit of having an insight to his mind, but I could never remember what I was doing afterwards. It was possession and not true control. He left no traces of his mind after possessing me, because he was probably afraid Dumbledore or someone would check my mind to see what was going on." Ginny replied in a cheerful tone. She had watched the whole thing, and approved of the tone her family had taken with Harry about the thievery.

She was appalled by her mother being controlled, and was angry at first that everyone was just ignoring that fact. This was until she realized they were not ignoring that fact totally, they were just giving her a little time to calm down and relax a little before they tried to bring it up and discuss it. The worker looked up at Harry, and then looked to Arthur.

"I am afraid your daughter is correct, Mr. Weasley. She has no trace of Tom Riddle in her mind whatsoever. While it is unhelpful in the long run, you can at least take some comfort from this. Have a good day, all." The Unspeakable said before standing, vanished his chair, and walking off with a single curious backwards glance. They watched him leave, and they turned back to Harry and asking what _he_ was doing there, alone.

"It is a very long story, and I have to ask that you don't tell Dumbledore, or anyone else. Just you three, and maybe Ron. If you agree, I will come by the Burrow tonight, and explain everything. For now, suffice to say I am here for a job." At this point, Horace came up behind Harry as he was talking.

"Harry! You had me worried. I waited for you to come back, but then you didn't. Do you still want the job, my boy?" Horace asked him. The Weasley family watched with interest as Harry nodded, and the man turned and walked away expecting him to follow. Arthur looked at Molly, then replied quickly.

"We don't like to hide things from Albus, Harry, but seeing as we don't understand what is going on, we will maintain our silence until we speak to you tonight. I make no promises after that. We'll expect you around six for dinner." The Weasley family left soon after that, brushing past Horace, but not before Ginny gave Harry a big hug. Harry turned to follow Horace.

Horace led Harry back into a room with two doors. Leading Harry into a door directly in front of them, which turned out to be a sort of observation room, he turned to face him, sitting in a black office chair. Gesturing to one of the same across from him and checking if they were truly alone, Horace began speaking.

"Harry, this job is the single hardest job in the Ministry. As such, we do not abide by much of the same rules as the rest of the Ministry, and disobedience is often met with swift action. Should you accept, and be accepted for this job, you will be required to do any and all actions required of you. Should you not do so, no matter who you are, you will be killed. Do I make myself plain?"

Harry looked at him somewhat shocked for a moment before nodding. Horace nodded, satisfied, before continuing. "Now, you are still young, no matter who you are or how smart you are. Normally, you'd be a junior operative. You are an adult however, no matter your age, according to Ministry records. Therefore, I will treat you as one. Understand that before all else, once you have been tested, you will be taught and are required to be able to perform occlumency. I have no idea if you have heard of the skill, or where you are with it if you have, but it is essential no one, not even the Minister, be able to read your mind and find out how we operate here. That said, your occlumency practices will help you control your emotions as well, like with what just occurred with the Weasley family when you heard young Miss Weasley's voice, and went running off into what could possibly have been a trap."

"In this job, you must learn to think, in short," Horace continued in a lecturing tone. "Here, we cannot afford to pander to those too slow, or incapable or learning to do so. That type of thinking costs lives. We do take some of those people and use them as organizers and quill pushers, or desk workers for short. We only need so many of those however. What we need are field workers. Now that we have a war underway, the Minister has been putting more strain on us, particularly after your spectacular break-in concerning one of our departments."

Harry nodded as his cheeks flushed with the memory of that particular incident. He would never forgive himself fully for that. Once he had quelled the embarrassment and pain from the memory down once more, he looked at Horace evenly as he said, "I have learned Occlumency. I have that skill well learned by now. You may test it if you wish. I will gladly take this job, but be warned. I am looking to try other things in life also. I will not work here all my life, and there are conditions. Should someone read my mind without permission, not only will I stop them, but I will likely put them in the hospital. Also, I do not need my secrets spread. As Head of the department, you are entitled to know a bit about me, but what I tell you must be kept in strict confidence. I am sure you understand."

Horace nodded. "Many who pass through here have much the same demands. We do not do much in the way of gossiping here, although rivalry between teams runs strong on occasion. Very well, I accept your conditions. My other department head and colleague Marcus will oversee the paperwork, after which I expect you back here for assessment. Through where we came in, and the door across the hall. He will be expecting you. Move it, recruit."

Harry stood and walked out of the room and across the hall obediently. When he entered the next room, he found a nice office with filing cabinets lining the walls, and plenty of bookshelves, much like his own at home. There was a man in a plush black armchair in behind a large mahogany desk. He had black short hair, a straight and noble looking face, and a fit, lean body. He stood as Harry approached and offered a hand, a smile breaching his facial mask.

"Mr. Potter, our new recruit if I am not mistaken. Welcome. I am Marcus, as I am sure Horace informed you. I will be helping with the paperwork side of things, as I do for most of the department nowadays. Horace usually can't be bothered with such things, although it forces him to rely on me for everything from information to recruitment. Sit, and I shall endeavor to make this quick and painless." Marcus said, indicating one of the two comfortable looking chairs in front of the desk.

As Marcus sat and lined up several stacks of paperwork, he explained each one to Harry and showed him where to sign. The forms were many, but necessary. Several detailed all expenses paid healers and trips to St. Mungos, and others went from signing his own death warrant in essence, meaning he wouldn't speak of this to anyone aside from future wives, nor would he disobey orders. Harry was reluctant to sign his life away like this, but reminded himself it was just a job. If he played by the rules and did what he was asked, it would not be so bad and may end up enjoyable. The paperwork went quickly, proving how tested Marcus was in the area, and Harry found himself back in the observation room once more as Horace began to explain what would happen in the assessment test. He would be trained in reactions, occlumency, dueling, knowledge, intelligence, and general skill. He was also told that anything went, including unforgivables. He had protested at being told to kill or torture his future co-workers, and was rebuked strongly.

"We all know the risks and requirements of working here," Horace had said firmly. "Firstly, controlling people through the imperious is not harmful. We teach it should it become necessary in the field, or to gather information quickly. Secondly, torture through the Cruciatus curse teaches our field workers better resistance should they be captured, and teaches them how to use it in an interrogation setting. Thirdly, the Avada Kedavra curse, the killing curse, is necessary in our line of work. We rarely take prisoners, and assassination missions are quicker when it is used. In this room, also, when it hits it merely changes the curse to a sleeping curse and transfers the victim to the hospital area next door. You must be able to use these curses to some extent to work here. Do you understand?"

Harry nodded and Horace handed him black robes made of acromantula silk. It was the most expensive robes available. Not only did they look exquisitely expensive, but the silk ensured protection against nearly all hexes and curses to a certain extent. The hood on this robe was also enchanted to hid his face in darkness when worn, and could only be removed by the wearer unless the charm was broken. The outside of the robe, on the bottom right hand side, had several bars, side by side and row by row. These had different meanings. There were a row of bars for offensive skills, defensive skills, healing, unforgivable curses, and rank.

In the offensive skills row, there were five bars. The more you earned the better you were with it. A fully barred section meant you had mastered the skill set to the satisfaction of the tester. To get a full five bars in the offensive set, you must be able to attack and win against several opponents or in a situation where others would run out of stamina. The same went for the Defensive skills row, with five bars that could only be fully filled by performing several extremely difficult shielding spells. The healing row had three bars, and to work as a healer here you must have two of them filled. Three meant you knew the equivalent of a master healer, and could perform such spells. Should you do so, the department granted you a diploma for Master Healer status, which was the highest you could go in the field, should you go to university for it. People earning this, could get a job as a healer practically anywhere, and it was the deparment's way of granting bonuses, since the pay in this department was grand in itself. The row for unforgivables had three bars and was filled by your ability to cast, maintain, and not hesitate when using unforgivable curses. Those who earned a full set of bars here were left well enough alone by those who knew what it meant.

The final row of bars had four bars, and the more bars you had filled, the higher rank you had. It was difficult to fill these usually, and most operatives only had one. A full four bars were for department heads, which only Marcus and Horace maintained. Three meant you were a team leader, and two were only for those who were sub-team leaders. A level one may have next to no sway to most people's mind, but this was not the case. In this department, teamwork was essential to missions, but was also a hindrance in them as well. Horace explained to Harry that no matter how much he hated or cared for his team, if things go bad with any mission and it was thought to be unfixable, he was to leave and come back immediately. All operatives were trained to get out of these situations, and could handle getting themselves back. This was not the formal military, and if leaving squad members behind meant some surviving to tell the tale and complete the mission another day, so be it. Also, most people would be kidnapped and not killed, meaning they could mount rescue missions later if need be.

Equally it was explained that a level one operative had sway over any other job in the ministry, except department heads. This is one reason the second day on the job was dedicated to studying and passing a test regarding all other ministry jobs and departments, how they worked, and what their jobs entailed. He was taught that no matter his rank, even if he ever made it to Horace and Marcus' level, he was to take all forms of advice. Even the level one operative had a voice in this department. Their ideals could help and hinder a mission the same as anyone else. As such, when planning a mission everyone involved in the mission was to be present so they could assist in doing so, and so everyone knew their jobs.

This was far more intense than anything Harry had imagined, but he understood everything going on around him for once, and he was enjoying it surprisingly. That was, until Horace took him out of the observation room and into the testing room, which morphed into a dueling platform. Although he was mostly confident in his own skills, it still caused his nervousness to rise once more when Horace announced he would now test Harry's abilities, and strode to one side of the dueling platform. This was where Harry would earn his first bars for his new uniform. Half torn between excitement and nerves, he called upon his occlumency to force his emotions to lose themselves in the mist as he stepped forward onto his side of the dueling platform and face Horace calmly…

 **Hogwarts, Headmaster's office**

Albus Dumbledore stood quickly from his office chair and strode around the desk in his office. He had awoken that morning feeling refreshed, and like he hadn't felt in years. It was as if an oppressive force had lifted off his mind. He was suddenly clear on whom he was, what was going on, and more specifically, what he had done to one grandson of his, Harry Potter. He had quickly written up many letters to different parts of the Ministry and was on his way out of his office to go looking for young Harry when a spirit appeared in front of him suddenly.

The spirit was in the form of a twisted troll-like appearance in humanoid form. It sent off waves of cruel despair, and raw power the likes of that which hadn't been seen on this earth for millennia. Albus knew it well enough, though he did not know exactly who or what it was. He had met this spirit in his travels through Greece while hunting a way to defeat Grindelwald all those years ago. He and Grindelwald had been close enough in power that he may have won on his own, but it would have been terribly close. He had felt drawn to this presence of mind, which had led him to a cave deep underground, where this spirit had appeared out of the black depths within. It had offered a deal. One favor from him in the future, and it would grant him double his current power levels permanently. He had agreed after some hesitation, but thought it well worth winning the war. He had been short-sighted in his youth. The spirit had kept its promise, thus his power levels now. It had not asked anything in return however and had disappeared once more.

"What do you want?" Albus asked it, masking his momentary fright. He was never scared of Voldemort, Grindelwald, nor even death, but his mind had been violated, he had done terrible things to his grandson whom he cared for more than nearly anyone in the world, and knowing not even Voldemort could breach his occlumency defenses, he assumed the creature in front of him responsible although he couldn't imagine why it would do so.

The creature laughed in a gravelly, deep, cruel tone as it said, "Why, Albus, that is a rather rude greeting for an old friend. You do remember owing me a favor don't you? I'd be disappointed if you had forgotten. I am going to finish what I started. Before you say so though, allow me to answer your unstated comments on this situation in the interest of expediency. I know you won't simply let me back in control of your mind, but you do not have a choice you see. Understand that although your defenses would normally keep me out of your mind, for a moment until my power would crush them, they are irrelevant. I can easily invade your mind as the promise you made was bound in your blood if you remember. Using your blood promise as a focal point, the promise will override your defenses and recognize the debt you owe me, thus allowing my control. You would do better to not fight me Albus. It will be less painful if you simply enjoy the ride."

After saying so, the spirit merged with his body, and it felt as if he was on fire inside as he fought the invasion mentally. As the spirit said though, he quickly succumbed to the control and his mind faded to the back of his head as his puppeteer began pulling his strings once more, forcing him to walk to his desk and shove his newly written letters in his desk to burn later…

 **Unknown**

The cruel man turned from the window to face his wife, laying in their bed, and his most trusted servant, kneeling on the floor in front of him shaking and sweaty from his most recent punishment, black hair falling to cover his face. The man walked over to stand over him, clothed only in a pair of silk black pajama bottoms.

"I expect no more problems. I have secured control over the fool Dumbledore once more for you. I shall surrender control over him to you once more. Voldemort is more powerful and cannot be controlled, and manipulating his decisions is a task I entrust to none but myself. This leaves me no time to control the weak fool, Dumbledore, but should you weaken again and allow his mind to fight yours and win once more, I will be most displeased and it will likely result in your death or severe punishment, friend though you have been to me. You are my most trusted servant, and to gain my trust takes much. Do not fail me again. My return relies on one of these two fools making decisions, and until then, we need them. My spirit form I had left upon the earth is now spent, and cannot be used again. Do not make me regret doing so."

The servant looked up from his kneeled position and nodded his affirmation. "No, my lord. I shall not fail you twice. I will do my best to ensure this does not happen again." He rose, bowed twice, once to his lord and once to his lord's wife, and exited quickly without a backward glance. The lord, however, turned to his wife, lying naked under the covers on his bed. For once, he passed up the chance to do or say something cruel to her, and jerked the covers off her before pulling her to him and simply fulfilling his desire once more. His mind seemed to be elsewhere however, and she did not understand where or why, simply choosing to go along with this to avoid further attracting his ire.

In fact, his mind was elsewhere, on one Harry Potter. The boy must have learned occlumency, for he could not sense his mind any longer, which worried him. Fluke or not, Merlin had managed to oust him once, and this was the little upstarts heir. He would prefer to crush him quickly, before he became a problem, and that was exactly why he had sent his best assassin, Caliban, to accomplish this feat. Caliban was ruthless and cunning, and would not fail him. They had been friends for just as long as he and his other most faithful servant. Unlike him, Caliban was human, but he had made him immortal centuries ago as a gift, and the humanity in him enable him to travel to earth and back freely. A useful ability, if nothing else. In the event that Caliban failed to find the boy to kill and returned empty-handed, he smiled cruelly at the thought of a challenge. Like all egotistical beings, he enjoyed proving he was the best. Much cheered by this thought, he slapped the girl above him hard and reversed their positions with him on top, smiling perversely with pleasure at the way his own life was going as he listened to her pained cries while he fulfilled his sadistic pleasures.

Soon, he would return. Soon, he would get his revenge and kill the upstarts family and entire race. Soon, he would rule the universe once more…

 **Author's Notes:**

 **So, I did manage to keep my promise this time and update before the 1** **st** **of January. Congratulations to me! Moving on to more serious things, I do not know when the next update will be. I do hope you guys enjoyed this chapter though, and there will be more coming in the future. Obviously next chapter will deal more with Harry, but we will be seeing an appearance for Dumbledore. He whines when I don't give him airtime. Must be an end-of-life crisis, as I can't imagine why a man his age has regressed to a whiny teenager again.**

 **To the reviews! I was very pleasantly surprised by the sheer number of reviews, and private messages I received over the last chapter. Keep it up guys, it really is immensely appreciated.**

 **I must thank my faithful reviewers especially: Special thanks go to; godofall, Arthurshade, nesciamema, Scrappy8, SerenitySelena, and SennyBee98!**

 **FIRSTLY, to SennyBee98, I have a personal message and request. First of all, I am extremely pleased with the reviews you leave in particular, as they are long, descriptive, and put a smile on my face as I read your latest theories. I have decided to once again pose a challenge/request for you. I am really happy you made the jump to realizing Merlin only won due to help and the fluke, as it is very important to the story, but in an unusual way. Voldemort is, but is not a pawn equally. He is not being controlled, but manipulated, which becomes essential later in the story. AS to your theory about the soul bond hating cruel lord, you are very close, but not fully correct. Nor are you fully incorrect about it either. It does have something to do with being truly incapable of love as we see it, but he loves in his own way. This has more to do with birth: who he is and how he was raised, and is also essential later in the main plot. Pay attention to the girl and how she reacts also, as no one knows who she is or why she is even there. I assure you, it is not merely to scratch his itch. She is important, and how she acts about certain things is even more important to the main plot. My challenge to you is to speculate on Harry now. Harry's new job will help in many ways and although one other job would have given him the access and power he now holds, it would have made little sense. I would like to see if you can possibly guess what political, physical, and emotional ties he will gain from this job, and why that is likely to be important. As always, thanks for your reviews and thoughts, they help make the story worth it, and also help me make plot decision revisions on occasion.**

 **SECONDLY, to AruthurShade. I must thank you for repeated reviews, and have a question for you also. Do you or have you read the Inheritance Cycle? If so, I was wondering if the name ArthurShade was a mix of Arthur Weasley becoming a shade from the Inheritance Cycle?**

 **Finally, to Nesciamema AND SerenitySelena. Nesciamema, I hope you like this chapter, and that it gave you a clue how Ginny comes into play. It was you who influenced the idea of how she will do so in fact when your review prompted me to think of it. SerenitySelena, I am glad you like the idea of the exam results and how the schooling comes into play. It plays a large part in a secondary plot to do with Hogwarts.**

 **TO ALL, thanks for reviewing, reading, and generally being a part of this story! I appreciate all views, favorites, likes, and reviews I get! Please continue to review and private message me about the story, and I hope you all liked this chapter. Chapter Nine will be up as soon as I can manage!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Harry watched Horace from across the dueling platform. He knew that he had been studying for a long while now and knew quite a few new spells thanks to his previous knowledge from the Founders, and Merlin, and some from his reading, but several new spells had been invented since the days of the Founders and Merlin, and his reading had not been near enough to encompass all he needed to know. Most of his reading was tailored to potions, or energy consumption and movement, or even Herbology and magical animals. He studied Occlumency and Legilimancy a lot as well. Most of that had no bearing here, and what he did know of combat related spells was mostly school taught or from his inheritance. He did figure that some of their spells were probably outdated as well, but he did hope they may not be as widely known though, and that may give him an advantage. Power-wise, he was possibly stronger than Horace, not counting the crystals although he knew better than to judge a book by its cover, and if he did get in trouble he always had them. Since this was training though, he intended to just use his own power levels, and save the crystals until they were needed. Judging by the man's size, he would be faster too. The man wasn't fat, but muscle slowed you down just the same.

On the skill side, he was probably a lot less skilled than Horace. Horace had been training some of the best fighters in Britain for longer than he had been alive, and certainly some had to be quicker, more powerful, more knowledgeable in combat, or more skilled than him, but he was still standing here. Obviously the older man had something more going for him but Harry could not decide what that would be, except perhaps the fact that he was far more experienced. Harry may have knowledge and experiences from Merlin and the Founders, but that did not necessarily change his outlook on some things. In some ways he still had the mind of a schoolboy his age, and that would be more hindering than helpful here.

Horace spoke from across the dueling platform in a lecturing tone. "So, boy, first lesson. If I were to throw a decapitation hex at you, what would you do?"

"I would try to stun you."

"Wrong. You would throw an equally dangerous hex or curse back at me, and dodge or repel what I sent at you. Stunning is very much a teenager ideal. How grand, maybe if I wanted a schoolboy knocked out in Hogwarts I shall call on you. Now, what will you do?" Horace asked once more with a sneer on his face.

"I would send a bone-shattering hex your way." Harry replied, slightly incensed at the way Horace spoke to him.

"Right on the second time, recruit. Too bad you are missing your head at this point. While Marcus is the only one in the observation room at this point, I shall take this opportunity to tell you something else. Aside from me and Marcus, as we run the department, every other operative has a field name. That handy feature on your cloak that helps the hood hide your face will be used at all times, so put it on now. No worries, it is charmed to stay on even if the fiercest wind was to hit you full blast. The temperature control charms on the hood and cloak will help as well, no matter what climate you are in. No other operative in this department knows each other by actual name, unless they choose to tell one another. That is why we use field names, and until you have earned one in my book, you will go by recruit, or new guy. Let's hope you make a better impression than you look like you will." Horace said in a slightly sarcastic tone. He was beginning to act more and more like Snape to Harry, which was not good for the man's health if he kept taunting him, boss or not. What Harry did not understand, was this was Horace's way of getting the best out of his recruits. This was how he tested their limits.

"Now, recruit, time for another little bit of information you'll need and generally be interested in knowing. The robes and hood all have a couple more features. I will list them all for you: the hood will shroud your face in blackness, and be unable to be removed by anyone except yourself. The hood and robe both have a temperature charm built in. If you feel warm or cold, it will swap temperatures to match and make you comfortable. The acromantula silk will protect you against almost all but the unforgivables, until the ward charms interwoven are broken, in which case they take a full twenty-four hours to recharge. The robe has the cloak on the back, which you can tap with you wand and say the word; color: change, and say what color you want. While at work it is expected to be the mandatory black. Anywhere else this is up to you. Two last things though. The robe, cloak, and hood are obviously all attached. They cannot be ripped, nor can they be summoned off your body, but what they do have in the robes are summon-proof pockets. The pockets are interchangeable, so if you put something in them, then whatever pocket you reach into, the object or objects will be transferred to. Also, the clothing only responds to the wearer. I stated earlier that it cannot be summoned. You are the only exception to this rule. So, there is no excuse to not wearing the robes to work, nor can you say you had to search for them, thus the reason for being late. Lastly, I have been charged with telling you that you will receive a lump sum of five thousand galleons for your training, and you rate of pay will vary from ten thousand to twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand galleons per job depending on the risk of said job along with possible benefits of finding items you will be allowed to potentially take home for yourself during said job." Horace stopped there and surveyed him a moment.

Harry processed all that into his occlumency room for a moment, then tensed under the scrutiny Horace was providing. He had assessed the situation correctly and had forgotten one little detail for now. He was glad they had healers nearby in the department, because his healing was limited to "Episkey" which was not going to be of much use here, and the spells he had learned to fix Moody back up, which was all individually tailored and also not useful here. He did not even know half of the counter-curses to the spells he would be using. None of the founders had really focused on healing as a subject, and Merlin's healing magic was done mostly wandlessly, and really only went as far as healing a couple scratches, bruises, and possibly one broken bone. Merlin hadn't spent much time focusing on wandless magic, as he was too particular about using his staff.

Horace stopped watching him and said, "Now I am going to see what you can do, recruit. Prepare to defend yourself!"

Horace turned and vanished as the room's dueling platform gave way and turned into a forest setting all around him, totally catching Harry off guard as it was obviously supposed to. He had been expecting a dueling platform type of duel, and now he had an entirely different terrain to deal with. Fine then, he would just have to adjust. He began creeping forward as quietly as he could, watching for signs of Horace. He felt a tingling at the back of his neck, kind of like a sixth sense telling him he was in danger. He hopped out of the way as a jagged yellow curse sailed over his head from the right. Jumping over to his right once more he began firing stunners and reductor curses back at the area the curse had come from.

He watched as they all hit trees or sailed onward and knew Horace had already moved. His Slytherin and Gryffindor instincts were kicking in once more, and he settled into a crouch. He moved quickly and quietly forward toward where he heard the sounds of a stream. As he got closer another curse, purple this time, sailed at him once more. He dodged and began casting more stunners at the area of the source, wondering how on earth the man was finding him so easily. Then it hit him. The man was disillusioned, and he wasn't. The man also had sharp ears. Harry remembered him finding Harry with the Weasley family before coming in here, and although he had not been with them for the duration of the conversation, he knew everything that had been said.

With that thought in mind, Harry cast a disillusionment charm on himself, and silently and wandlessly cast a silencing charm on his feet simultaneously. He quit his assault on what was most likely an empty area by now and crept up to the large stream. The only way across was a small path of five stones that were just big enough to step onto. He crossed quickly, and then got an idea. He moved quickly, since artificial sunlight was hitting this direct area and he would show up distortedly under his charm. He splashed water onto the stones and cast a freezing charm on them. While it wasn't perfectly accomplished, it gave him the effect that he had desired and turned the water into ice.

Moving on quickly, he found he was at the base of a small hill, with a one room building at the top, overlooking the stream form a large window. He made his way there, turned and locked the door with a hasty "colloportus" and went to the window. It was perfectly sized for him to shoot spells from and to duck under if need be. He aimed out of the window after opening it just halfway, and waited. After about three minutes, his patience was rewarded by a splashing sound and a loud "Shit!" He saw the rippled form of Horace rising from the stream onto the opposite bank and turning to face his direction. Harry sent a stream of stunners at him so quickly he couldn't do more than erect some form of bubble shield.

The stunners all dissipated against it, but he did force him to drop the disillusionment charm. Unfortunately he could see the sneer on Horace's face as he watched the approximate place he thought Harry was. Not knowing what else to do right at the moment, Harry kept up his constant stunning spells and realized Horace was toying with him, and wanted more. He was still very much acting like a good little schoolboy. Dropping the way he was acting currently, he adopted a new attitude, the kind he usually only took when in a real situation. It helped motivate him by a lot when he dropped his assault and Horace launched a red beam of light at him that he recognized as the Cruciatus Curse.

" _Holy Hell, he wasn't kidding!"_ Harry thought as he ducked and it shattered the window. A grim look overtook his features as he responded with two bone shattering hexes and one bone exploding curse. The power he unintentionally let loose with the first two spells shattered Horace's shield, and the third clipped his knee, causing the kneecap to explode on the inside. Harry ran outside and pressed his advantage, catching Horace in his left elbow and his left shin with bone shattering hexes. Then, as Horace fell and groaned in pain involuntarily, his wand snapped up and the Cruciatus curse hit Harry faster than he could react.

He felt the familiar pain pull him into its unforgiving grip. It wasn't near as painful as Bellatrix or Voldemort's, but that wasn't saying much as it still landed him flat on his back. Trying to ignore it and roll out from under it, although his cynical mind told him he was probably just rolling in pain, he eventually controlled it enough to open his eyes and whisper the bone shattering hex once more, hitting Horace's right forearm, and causing him to lose control of the curse and fall fully on his back. Harry rolled over, his body screaming in pain, and regained his feet. Fury at being put under that spell again for the third time in his life caused him to run over and kick Horace's wand away before pointing his own at him and, for the second time in his entire life, whisper a single word.

"Crucio." Harry said calmly in an angry tone. He poured his rage at being subjected to the curse once more into the spell, which was also being fueled by his hatred of Bellatrix and Voldemort. He heard a crash through the underbrush about two minutes later, and he dropped the curse and turned his wand onto the new threat. Marcus broke through, holding his wand at the ready, before pointing it down to show he meant no harm. Harry relaxed slightly, letting his occlumency shields suppress his emotions again. Marcus walked over briskly and looked down at a twitching Horace.

"I came as soon as I saw the crucio being used on Horace. You know you are doing something right if Horace begins throwing it around, but I would say you have definitely passed if you got a chance to use it back. Looks like you finally lost one, huh old man?" Marcus said to Horace. Horace glared at him futilely, causing Marcus to laugh loudly. "Yeah, alright, I'll just call the healers in. You'll need to go with them too Potter. You have a few cuts and bruises, not to mention exposure to the Cruciatus curse. They'll fix you right up."

Marcus sent a silver spell out of his wand that sped through the door as the room morphed back into a small square room once more. Marcus spoke again as they waited. "Now, what you were not told before is that your grades and being who you are helped you get approached for this job, but had no bearing on it really. We do not concern ourselves with that. Your skills are what gets you accepted here. To be approached in the first place though, you must have a sponsor. One who works with us here, before you start wondering who. They oversee your training, and vouch for you personally. The person will be meeting you in our hospital wing room. Once you have gotten over the inevitable curiosity or anger stage when you've met with them, then you are to meet me in the meeting room with them for your first mission."

Harry nodded as four healers rushed in and two levitated Horace out and Harry waved off the other two, choosing to walk out under his own steam. They led him to a room right across the hall, which was the most sense Harry had seen in the entire Ministry thus far. They laid him on a bed and patched him up quickly after pouring two potions down his throat. As he sat there, another person entered the room, not dressed in healer robes, but dressed in that of the black work robes. The person walked over to stand at the foot of his bed, just as Harry began wondering who this sponsor was, and what his first mission might be…

 **Hogwarts**

Dumbledore strode through the halls of Hogwarts. No one had been able to trace Harry for a very long time now, and he was beginning to get downright angry. Not only that, but her had lost control over Molly, and the Weasley family was all avoiding his floo calls and meeting summons. The only way to do something about that was to wait until their children arrived at school, since he wanted to draw no extra attention on himself by illegally fixing the problem. Arriving at his destination, Professor McGonagall's office, who thankfully was not there at the moment, he strode over to her desk.

He shuffled various things out of his way until he came across the student registry. Finding the charmed quill used to send out the Hogwarts letter, he said to it very clearly, "Harry Potter." The quill trembled over the parchment for a moment before writing the boy's name, and then "Unknown" as the location. Dumbledore swore violently before shoving it back into the desk and leaving the office. The quill should have been able to access Harry's ministry folder for the location.

He took off down and out of the school, apparating to the Ministry as he left through the gates. He would have to do this the hard way then. After apparating into the atrium and completely ignoring the security guard, he walked quickly to the elevators that would take him to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, where he would personally go through the archives section in the Auror department. He would find the brat one way or another…

 **Unknown**

A teenaged-looking beautiful girl was hurrying down the steps in the castle she lived in for several thousand years now. It was always hot in this castle, no matter how far up or down you went. Her lord and husband had left quickly stating he had business to attend to. Usually she hoped it kept him busy enough to avoid whatever torment, or sexual ideals he had in mind for the evening. Now though, she only hoped it kept him busy enough to not notice what she was up to. He would be furious and she would be tortured, raped, and brutally murdered for it. This farce of a marriage was very much one sided, and she had not wanted it. She had equally had no other option either. Marry him, or die.

The girl quickly activated a portal hidden deep under the castle in a private room she had created herself. No one else knew it existed. She stepped through the portal and back to earth. As she ended up in a back alley in Diagon Alley, she changed her features and walked quickly to a post office. She slipped over some gold and a letter addressed to Harry Potter before returning to the portal. She did not get to spend much time with him on earth, but she could see how badly he was used and treated and how little anyone did to stop it from where she was now. Not only that, but he was her last hope too. She desperately wished she did not have to put this on him, but knew of no one else able to stop it.

As she exited the portal and made it back to their private chambers, she thought of her former husband when she had been a mortal on earth. He had been loving, and kind, and always cheerful. Beautiful, he had called her. He told her it was a gift. When she died, it had proven a curse. She had arrived in the underworld awaiting judgment, when an attack had occurred. She had been separated from the other dead beings by some strange humanoid looking creatures, and was dragged even deeper down into the pits of hell, away from her husband. When you died, you did stay corporeal, meaning you could touch speak and interact with others, but you were forced to be unable to return to the world of the living unless in spirit form.

This place though, was governed by different rules. This was a different place of being entirely. She had felt the power of her new lord and husband bring his back into a state of living, and had made her immortal. Immortally beautiful, he had said. He gave her nothing more, except time in his dungeons in this evil-feeling place. When she had first arrived as a dead being, she had felt herself fading away out of existence, clearly because of her distance from the underworld. She had been made immortal and alive once more, but without the immortality she could tell that she would still be dying or fading. This place seemed to be capable of being coped with only by being like the beings in it.

She had not wanted the marriage, and had been forced into it by her "lord", which was an insult in itself. By being beautiful enough to catch his attention, she had become his sex toy essentially. She knew of other reasons too. When he gained enough power and the circumstances hit correctly, he would take her with him when he returned to earth. Not out of love or anything else, but out of spite. It would hurt others to see her standing with him as though she had a choice. It would give him a form of control over their will and hope. She had in reality been dead for only a handful of years, but time worked differently here. Hundreds of years could pass in what was only a day in the realm of the living. In all that time, despite being treated cruelly, she had learned a lot more than she had known when alive before.

She had found that she could watch events happening on earth through a scrying mirror. She had discovered a way of manipulating those things by her creation and use of the portal. The problem was that after every use, the portal took nearly all of her energy to recharge, and that in itself made it difficult to do anything after recharging it. Not to mention she was supposed to be dead, and couldn't be seen on earth in her own form. She continued thinking on these thoughts as the door opened admitting her husband, who promptly backhanded her and told her to strip. As she removed her clothing and lay on the bed obediently, the last thought relating to the situation she had just been in was, _"Good luck, Harry. I hope you manage to actually succeed where others have failed in this."_ The more practical side of her brain knew that divine power had failed once, and this was likely then end of all things good and pure…

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Whew! That was all written in the space of an hour folks! I just had a plot bunny attack me and had to get it all down before it was lost to the insanity of my mind. Now, onto the good parts of the author's notes.**

 **SennyBee98: I had to get this in there, as I read your review before my plot bunny attacked me. I enjoyed the review, and here are the main things I have to say in response to it. First, the final comment about the pedophile part made me laugh. It does make sense someone that evil as to be more so than Voldemort would also not really care much in the way of age, but that wasn't so with this portion of the story. I wrote more on the girl to further that part of the plot. It made it nearly painfully clear as to who it could be. There are only a few options available as to who, and even fewer make sense as part of the story. Keep in mind though, that rape will be common as the story takes on a darker theme, and keeping to the idea that this story will be mostly realistic, there will be references to children being raped, tortured, and killed. The rape will never be graphic, or detailed on nearly all occasions as I do not particularly want to write about that, but it will be referenced. Usually in horror. I did give a warning of this before in chapter one, and I sincerely hope it doesn't turn you away from the story. I should think not though, as you seem to be the type of person to relish the idea of a story being more realistic. On from that to the more cheerful topics though! You were right that the evil lord's way of expressing love and seeing it came from his parents, but not in the form of being abused. It was all he was taught more like. Therefore, never knowing otherwise, he sees everything else as wrong. Your take on Voldemort was halfway what I had in mind, but the rest of your sentence about an alliance had admittedly not occurred to me, but is being considered rather seriously now in place of my idea. At the very least it will be incorporated in the story somehow, even if it is by the other characters dismissing it as an idea. You are mostly dead on about Harry being an unspeakable. The emotional side of things you are correct in thinking it will help abolish his saving people thing, which is important later, but this chapter will hopefully give you a clue as to what part of being an unspeakable may lead to emotional ties being gained. So, should you be interested, I have another couple requests/questions to ask you. How do you think the money will come into play for Harry? He is rich, and that will be needed in a way. Also, how do you think the Weasleys will take Harry taking control of his life and taking up this job? Bearing in mind he can only tell so much since he can only speak of the job to other operatives, his family, or the family of other operatives. I will leave you with that, and look forward to the answer! Thanks for another wonderful review!**

 **To Nesciamema: I read your review, and was startled by how close you were on that. I had thought no one had yet made that particular jump. This chapter and the next should shed particular light on that subject, and I hope you are satisfied with that. Thanks for reviewing!**

 **To ArthurShade and godofall, for faithful reviews! Glad you guys like the story, and hope you stick with me as it progresses!**

 **Thanks to all who reviewed! Not sure when the next chapter will arise, but I have been on a roll here lately, and hope it continues. Please continue to review and private message me with your likes, dislikes, and things you'd like to see more of! Until next time folks!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten:**

Harry watched as the person lowered their hood slowly to reveal long, beautiful red hair. It was Ginny! He stared at her in wonder for a moment before looking around to give himself a clue to if he was medically induced into a dream. He had been hurt, but he sure didn't remember any head injuries. This couldn't be true, he decided. He had seen her before he came in here, which was admittedly hours ago but still…the more rational part of his brain woke up and snidely commented about how she would have gotten past the wards preventing everyone but department workers. He sighed, becoming depressed.

"Do you hate me?" The question posed no more inflection or emotion than a comment on the weather. Ginny looked at him fully in the face, and for the first time, he saw the maturity and more haunted look in her eyes than he had ever noticed before. If he looked further, he imagined he could still see the fifteen year old playfulness though from the Ginny he knew. Resigning himself to yet another round of hurt and pain sessions, he sighed again.

"How are you here, Ginny? How is it possible that you could be in this room, when I saw you not hours ago? Where are your parents? I swear I don't know anything anymore! Why did you hide this from me? All those hours in DA meetings and you don't think this was worth mentioning? Why are you here, and what do you want from me Ginny?" Harry asked her somewhat hysterically. She and he had never been particularly close before, but she was his best mate's sister and he felt protective of her because of that, and the slightly growing friendship built in the DA and when she had followed him to save Sirius last year. He felt betrayed. Not only had he lost the closest thing to a parent he ever knew, but now he found his friends were leading secret lives behind his back too.

"Slow down, Harry. You only just got healed. The Cruciatus curse isn't something to joke about. I'll answer your questions one at a time, but each in its own time. First, I wanted to tell you how proud I am of what you did to Horace. Many of us have wanted to do that to him since our training days with him, but no one has been good enough even after years of training. You managed it the first day. I was in the observation room, since I was your sponsor. Now that you have passed the admission test, and are fully considered a member, I was sent to bring you fully into the loop. Now, I will answer your questions." Ginny made herself comfortable and drew in a deep breath. Harry had calmed a little during her mini-speech, but was still majorly upset at being kept in the dark once more, thinking it Dumbledore's decision.

"I will start with the question about my parents." Ginny spoke again. "My parents are at the burrow. They are the only ones in my family aware of where I am. They always tell the rest of them that I am at Great Aunt Muriel's house. No one likes her really, so they stay well away. My parents had to sign for this, and I am considered a junior operative. My only two jobs were to observe the training, and learn how the department runs. Occasionally I ran notes or did some other mundane paperwork task. In the beginning, with my parent's permission, I was tested for admittance for when I turned 17. They did not want to agree at first, but once Marcus had spoke to them and assured them I would take a "child's" test, they were more willing. It was still horrible, and I still look forward to the real test one day to pay Horace back. Perhaps I should tell you why I was approached at all. It was because of the chamber of secrets incident. Originally, and after all these years, different researchers in the other department examined my mind for details on Tom Riddle. They have never found anything left over. This department has seen Voldemort's return coming for years, but they have little to do with the rest of the ministry as a whole. When they found nothing the first few times, they almost gave up. Marcus himself tried, and he found nothing important, except an extreme power boost. At 11, I had the magical strength of a fifteen or sixteen year old witch. It clearly brought a burning curiosity to Marcus' mind, and he asked me if I'd like a job. I took it, once he had gotten my parents to accept. Once all the worries were cleared up or glossed over and they were told I was in no immediate danger, they accepted too, as I really wanted to do it as well."

"It was hard at first, hiding it from the others, but it became easier." Ginny told him, raising her hood once more to hide her face as two other Unspeakables entered the room. "I don't think mum really believes that I am in no danger, and dad knows more about the ministry than he lets on, but they accepted it was what I wanted to do, just as they eventually accepted Fred and George's joke shop. I only work part days anyway, but today when I saw you during that test, then saw Horace, I knew things were heating up what with mum being controlled, money being stolen, and you getting a job here, so I showed up again to watch. Now, with all that said, you know the secrecy charms in place. Even Junior Operatives have to have the papers signed and documented. They also still get their first, and only, mission, which you will get shortly. I am sorry, and I did want to tell you sooner, but there you have it."

Harry thought about it for a moment, pushing his emotions into his mist. Everything she had said made sense, but that doesn't mean he wasn't curious of a few other things too. "Does Ron or Hermione or anyone else know of this? Did you have to learn Occlumency and Legilimancy too? They said you "sponsored" me, what does that mean?"

"You have more questions than leaves on a tree, I swear!" Ginny laughed, drawing a look from the other patients on the other side of the room. She lowered her voice exponentially. "No, as I said, no one else knows. I did have to learn a bit of Occlumency. I know how to hide from light probing and maybe an intense attack if it lasts for only a few moments. Legilimancy I never had to learn, as I am a junior operative and they saw no need for me to learn that just yet. As for me sponsoring you, that is a longer tale."

"When I followed you here during last year to save Sirius, I felt as if I was going on a real mission. All Horace and Marcus tell me of is how dangerous and intense missions really are. I listened, but I never heeded it. When we started off fighting the death eaters, we were doing decently, and I thought they were just having me on. As the fight dragged on and I was hurt, I realized that if they had not been so preoccupied with getting the prophecy, that we would have been killed within moments. We were easily outclassed. I knew it would not get any easier for you, so I came here days after school was out. First I had to apologize for the damage we did. Then, I offered you as a hopeful. I knew you needed more help, and I knew from last year that Dumbledore was unlikely to provide the best help possible. Usually junior operatives aren't allowed to offer up hopefuls as candidates, but team three is almost nonexistent. They lost two out of three members last year on an assassination mission set for Bellatrix. Each team had three people, so that team isn't functioning currently. They needed replacements. Also, with me having been with you on the raid on the department, and you being you and likely to have something special going for you, they accepted the chance to try."

Ginny took a few deep breaths here and looked at him pensively. "Also, I am hoping that they will allow me to stop being a junior operative now that I am closely involved in what you do and because it would be a nice reward for sponsoring you. I can do much more good by actually learning something. My first mission was simple. I took my employment record and snuck it into my file, with Marcus' help."

Harry thought what she was saying over again surprised by how much everything fit. One day here, and he understood more of what was going on around him than he originally thought. He was also going to be actually learning and doing stuff that would help him and others in the long run. He spoke up, since his silence was most likely worrying her. "I understand why you did everything, and had no right to pry into the personal details of why you were here. I apologize, for everything. Thank you for helping me and offering me this chance. It may not feel perfect right now, but I am sure that down the road it will help immensely. It also helps knowing I will have someone to speak to about it all. Now, I should probably get to Marcus. He said to bring you too."

Harry hopped up out of the bed, ignoring his bodies' protest at the swift action. Ginny went to his side and walked alongside him in case he should happen to fall. They made it down the hall and into the meeting room where Harry gratefully collapsed into his chair. He removed his hood once more. The healers knew everyone in the department, but were under strict confidentiality oaths, and used screens to prevent other members seeing one another. Since none of Harry's injuries were on his face, he had kept his hood up the whole while. As he entered and sat, Ginny sat beside him while Marcus stood. Horace sat on the other side of the table, altering between glaring at Harry when he looked, and watching him thoughtfully when he wasn't looking.

"Good to see you are now up and moving again Harry. Before you ask if I didn't explain it before then I will now. This room is always kept free from potential eavesdropping. Now, moving onto your assessment and your first mission, let us start with your admittance test. You are an excellent fighter. Rarely do we get to work with someone who has been in actual combat scenarios and has had to make snap decisions. It is a delight for myself and for Horace although he will rarely if ever admit it. You did wonderfully, Harry. Now, I am going to explain the system of bars to you, when I am done, I will tap yours and alter them to reflect the assessment." Marcus said to Harry. He walked back and forth a few times before coming to a halt in front of the board again. He drew his wand and waved it at the board. Notes appeared describing the bars system as he explained it.

"As you have noticed, there are five rows of bars. Each one is color coded, which you will see once I alter yours. Red is for offensive. Blue is for Defense. Yellow is for healing, while Black is for the unforgivable curses. The last set of bars is silver. The offensive is where I will begin. When we are finished with all of these, and I have altered yours and described your mission to you, Miss Weasley here can take you to outfit you with the other Unspeakable equipment. I will also explain one last detail of the job to you." Marcus paused for breath and then looked Harry right in the eyes before he continued to speak.

"The job is relatively one of the most difficult things to handle for most people. You may or may not be the same. Now, I do want you to know it is like a normal job. We do not meddle in private affairs unless necessary in our capacity as department leader. Outside this department, you become someone else. This also means that as a normal job you may quit anytime. We do reserve the right to keep the secrecy spells in place, and we will modify any memories we feel are too dangerous to leave with you if you are deemed untrustworthy. With that said we do take care of our own. Outside here you may be someone else, but if you are attacked or in trouble, we will come to your aid as soon as we know. In your case in particular no one will be suspicious of someone else ordering a protective detail to your side in a dangerous situation. On the subject of the bars, we begin with red, as I said. The offensive bars are granted for several reasons. Your abilities to handle pressure, to think quickly on your feet, to fight back with the proper levels of aggression the situation calls for, your knowledge of combat spells, and your spell effectiveness. There are five bars in this particular row, and each one is earned by proving yourself in each of those areas." Marcus said, and Harry took a pocket journal from him, along with a quill. "Keep that on you at all times. The journal is never ending, and can be read by none but yourself; else it is magically wiped clean. The quill is a self-inking quill, which you buy more of at your own convenience. You are expected to keep notes in this, for you to consult any time they are needed, even in the field should time allow and it becomes necessary."

"Now we will move on to the blue row of bars. The Blue bar row represents your defensive spells. This also has five bars in the row, and they are filled thusly: your knowledge of defensive spells, your abilities to cast, maintain, and vary them, and your skill at choosing the correct shield in the correct situations. This is a very important skill, and will be brought up and went over thoroughly by Horace. As to your third row of bars, the yellow healing bars. The Yellow bars represent healing and there are only three of those. Each bar represents something here as well, and it is fairly simple. One bar represents your knowledge of healing spells and charms. The second displays your ability to cast them, and the final bar shows your skill at casting them under pressure. In combat no one will give you time to heal your teammates. You must be able to diagnose them and treat them quickly. The fourth row of bars is Black. This stands for the Unforgivable Curses. There are three in this row as well, representing your knowledge of them, skill at using them, and ability to handle them. We have four operatives in the whole department that has all three bars filled. Most cannot deal with them. Everyone can use them to some degree, and all of us have knowledge of them. No one messes with a three pip unforgivable operative when in the field. Two of those members are myself and Horace." Here he looked at Horace and received a slight nod before continuing.

"Harry, what I am about to do is likely to cause a stir, but even Horace agrees with me and it will hopefully die down soon. I am going to assign you to a team on your first day. The last row of bars is your rank. Most here are level one. We have a few level two people. There are few level threes. There are only two level four operatives, myself and Horace. I am assigning you your status bars, and assigning you to team three. Your skills will be updated, as Horace trains and tests all operatives close on once a month, so these are not permanent. Please, stand up." Marcus said.

When Harry had complied, Marcus moved in front of him and tapped the patch where the bars were hidden. They became visible and he muttered a small spell to alter them. When he stepped back, he saw his rank was a level one, which was no surprise really. His offensive bars were at four of five, and his defensive was at three of five. No surprises there either, as he knew one defensive charm. His yellow was at zero of three, and his black was at two of three. It also had three pips above all the bars in a Roman numeral style, showing him as a member of team three. He smiled, decently happy with the results of his first test.

"Rarely do people manage a full row of bars, and when they do they are reasonably respected here. With some time and training, we are sure you will get a full set of bars somewhere soon. Moving onto the mission and then the fitting, your first mission is simple, but has two parts. It will not even require leaving the ministry. In the Department of Magical Law Enforcement there are tracers in the Improper Use of Magic office. One is set for you, which no longer activates due to your emancipation, but next to it is a file for you. This file is what you are after. Take it out and bring it here to burn. You will no longer have a criminal record. Minors have one record, kept in that office, and when made an adult it is shifted to the archives. One must assume the rest of the ministry is unaware of your change in status unless they look for themselves. The second part of the mission is harder. You must enter the archives stealthily, and take your archive file. You may make any copies you wish for yourself since if I did not say so you would do it anyway as I have learned from others, but I will give you a contract of employment to slip into the original file. While legally we have to have one in your file for the department to run smoothly, you will be listed as a research worker, and will also have it as a future reference. The files are not individual. They are family files. They include anything anyone in the history of the whole family has ever done, legal and illegal, and are listed with individual files inside the main file. I expect this done quickly, then one more trip back here to collect your lump sum pay for training, and then you will have the rest of the day off. Miss Weasley will show you to the fitting room, after I take one more moment with her." Marcus said with a small smile. He looked at Ginny almost endearingly. It was obvious that after so many years as a junior operative she had grown on him somewhat and he was fond of her.

"Ginny, you have worked here for some time. I approached your father earlier today and convinced him to sign this form, allowing you to train and work as a full operative. This came with the understanding that although you will gain some advantages such as underage magic not pertaining to you and being allowed to earn money other than the pitiful lump sum we paid your parents years ago, you will not be emancipated. You will still be under your parent's rule, except when it comes to your job. Your father is probably telling your mother as we speak. He only agreed due to the unusual danger revolving around your position as Mr. Potter's friend. This will train you to be ready for such situations. Even more unusually, we are lacking another team member for team three, and with only one potential recruit, we are forced to surrender the position to you. It does help that you have been with us some time and we are aware of some of your abilities. You will be assessed tomorrow in between times that Mr. Potter receives his training for the day. Since this is going to occur, your robes will arrive tomorrow and you may also collect equipment at the same time as Mr. Potter. Tomorrow, you will receive a second mission, designed for you to sneak in and disable the magic detector specified for detecting your underage magic. If you agree, you will sign a little more paperwork tomorrow adding to your paperwork for the days you were a junior operative. You will also receive five thousand galleons as a lump sum payment for training. The increase in amount is due to your younger age. Do you agree to this?"

Ginny's face lit up as she did not even bother thinking on it. This what she had wanted for a long time, and she nodded emphatically. Marcus smiled and waved them out. Horace's only response was to glare. Ginny led Harry out and down the hall to a room labeled "equipment" rather originally, in Harry's opinion. Once the light was on and door shut however, his jaw dropped. The wall was covered in things ranging from suitcases to daggers and swords, along with foe glasses and other instruments he recognized from when the fake Moody taught them.

Ginny went down through the place and drug out two black new-looking suitcases. They had the same functions, which she explained to him enthusiastically. The trunk had three locks. The first was a regular suitcase area for clothing and such. The second was full of empty flasks and vials that were stuck with sticking charms to the bottom of the suitcase, and were charmed to never allow anything to spill. There were twenty-two vials, and twelve flasks. The third part of the trunk had a staircase. When he went down into it, he realized it was his own personal potions laboratory. One side was stocked with all sorts of basic ingredients for healing potions and such, and the other stocked with rare ingredients for poisons and things like the Polyjuice potion. He assumed it was probably necessary for some missions. It had one whole wall dedicated to shelf his own personal set of ingredients, meaning it was empty. One wall was full of Potions and Alchemical equipment. In one corner a beautiful mahogany desk was sitting with an office chair behind it. Behind the desk and chair, filling up a tenth of the wall on both sides of the corner, were filing cabinet drawers. The desk was full of parchment and quills, but he supposed he had to supply his own ink. He snorted at that…typical government. In the center of the room it was made up for with three tables of cauldrons. Four cauldrons were at each table. There was a chair in the middle, with wheels also so he could swivel to each cauldron.

The table in the direct center had a pewter, copper, gold, and silver cauldron, all standard size. The other two tables merely held four standard pewter cauldrons. The only problem Harry had in his moment of ecstasy upon realizing how cool the suitcase was was how impractical it would be to lug around. Once they exited and he asked Ginny about it, she had slapped him around the back of his head.

"What was that for?" He asked rubbing the back of his head ruefully. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Are you a wizard or muggle? Shrink the damned thing, and while you are at it, shrink mine too." Harry smiled a little, thinking of how pretty she looked when she was teasing him. He shook his head quickly, wondering where those thoughts had come from. He shrunk the trunks easily enough, and at her request he pocketed hers to take home for her for the night. He was sure they were warded against intruders, but once he was home he would make sure of it. Ginny proceeded along the walls once he was done and then pulled off two books from a shelf. She passed both to him and said, "Keep mine for me. These detail all the equipment in this room and what they do. Read through it, and if something else strikes your fancy, then clear it with Marcus or Horace and sign off on it or buy it. This equipment you get now, including the robes, is complimentary and you can keep them. I was supposed to tell you something else… oh yeah! When you leave, you need to tap your wand to the door and set a password. It will key you to the wards and will allow you to see the door unaccompanied by another worker, and will allow you inside."

Ginny led them out, and gave him a random hug, saying she had to return home now and wishing him luck on his mission. He smiled in response, and when she had disappeared into the room where Marcus and Horace last were, he left the department, turned, and set his password to key him into the wards as "Marauders, now and always." He continued down the hall and into the lift, which proceeded to take him to level nine, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

As he walked down the short hallway, he recognized the auror office he had been to the previous year with Mr. Weasley. He forged onward, and noticed people usually jumped out of his way. Apparently Marcus wasn't having him on. The rest of the ministry really did not want to deal with any kind of unspeakable, despite thinking that all they did was research. He would've thought that with it being the government, every secret would be virtually transparent. He made it to the outside of the Improper Use of Magic office, and checked for anyone watching before disillusioning himself and wandlessly silencing his footsteps. He waited until someone exited, and slipped inside as they walked out. He walked over to where some detectors were beeping and scanned them until he found his own. He checked for anyone looking again and slipped the folder in his jacket.

He slipped out of the office the same way he had entered, and walked to the archives room. He found it locked and tried Alohomora to no avail. Cynical though he was, and much though he had expected something like this, he was depressed at the fact that he had no real way to open this. His unlocking charms were limited to one word. Then, unbidden, memories from his Slytherin inheritance rose up, giving him about ten charms to choose from. Choosing the most powerful and hoping it was enough, he cast it. A sort of pinkish light emitted from his wand and hit the door. When he tried it, he sighed in relief when the handle turned.

He entered the room and found rows upon rows of filing cabinets. He quietly and quickly walked to the "P" section. Upon finding the "Potter" file, he lifted out the box and looked at the many files contained within. It went all the way back almost ten generations. He was shocked, and curious, so he did exactly as Marcus had said he would. He made a copy of the entire box, before quickly opening his folder and slipping the document inside. He took both boxes to a nearby table where he sat them down and disillusioned them too. He knew he did not need to take very long, but figured he had a couple moments at least before someone needed one of the many records stored in here. He quickly found out that there was an anti-copying ward on the boxes in here, as all of the copies he had said copy in a faint outline on each piece of paper within. Thankfully the word was faded enough to allow him to read each paper easily. To his amusement, the parchment detailing him had stated his whereabouts as "Unknown."

He slipped the folder back inside the copied box, satisfied with his quick inspection of his spell work. He shrunk the box and put it in his pocket. Lifting the original and turned to the cabinet, placing the original box back inside. He had just backed away when the door opened to admit a very irate looking Dumbledore. Harry backed away quickly, feeling like a deer in headlights and forgetting he was disillusioned. He remembered quickly and stepped into the shadows of the room as Dumbledore approached the same cabinet he had vacated moments before. Dumbledore pulled out his folder and opened it before scanning it quickly. He swore violently for the first time in Harry's hearing before putting everything back where it belonged and storming out.

 _"No doubt he will raise hell with Fudge about my location being "Unknown" and there will be hell to pay later for it. Better hurry back."_ Harry thought, and that was exactly what he did. He quickly took his payment from Marcus, was told to show up at seven the next morning, and he left for the Atrium. Once there, he apparated to his home gates and went inside for a nice soak and change of clothes before meeting the Weasleys later that evening…

 **Unknown**

"Unsurprisingly, the boy remains hidden. Has Caliban found anything on him yet?" The cruel voice asked his wife. He was genuinely curious as to the answer, but brought it up mostly because the reference to the servant he had named Caliban hurt her, knowing she had turned him onto this path. He had that particular servant for many years, and although he was still relatively middle-aged on earth, with all his time spent here it had amounted to thousands of years. He'd been forced to grant him immortality. He was the only servant available with the ability to travel to and from earth of his own volition.

Lily-Formerly-Potter looked at her "husband" rather subdued. She hoped the fact that Harry could not be found meant he was okay, but rather doubted it. She was tired of playing up to her new husband and trying to seduce him and make him momentarily stall his plans to kill her son. It sickened her that immortality had made her look like she had at seventeen again, though most women would be overjoyed, while she knew it would only get her more abused. She knew it would never matter in the long run to seduce him either, but she still tried it. She always tried to act as though killing him wouldn't bother her just to see if he ever would trust her enough to give her some small freedoms, but it never worked either. He always seemed to see right through her.

"No, love, he hasn't made much progress either. Shall I send word for him to return?" Lily asked hopefully. If she could, then that was one less worry on her mind. She hated calling him love, but a few punishments in she had learned to do so quite quickly. She had thought herself strong and willful once, but now knew just how small and weak she had been in the grand scheme of things. She would prefer Voldemort to this by far.

"No, we will give him a little longer to discover something first, pet. Go to the kitchens and fetch me some food. I am hungry and tired. I'll expect a massage when you return." He said to her, grinning in an unsettling way. "And Lily dear, let us try no more visits to the underworld. James is no longer your husband, and if I catch it again the price shall be severe."

She nodded and curtseyed to him, controlling her expression. The control broke when she reached the hallway, and once again just like every week since being taken here, she cried for all she had lost in her life, and in death. He had taken her for her beauty, true, but also because it was an insult to Merlin, who she had found out was very distantly related to her. He was here somewhere in the torture chambers supposedly, and had been for many thousands of years longer than she. She had never been told how to get there though, and had been forbidden to see him. It was true she had tried to see James, knowing he was somewhere in Elysium in the underworld, with the intent of trying to use a spell she had discovered to revive and give him immortality. It was true no mortal could do so, but now that she had a divine power within her, it was possible. He could have left and went to help their son. Those in the castle were restricted on going to earth, and could only do so when certain conditions had been met to host their bodies or summon them, or when the allotted time had passed. This did not include her. She had not been born immortal, but had been made so. The time she spent in this place though, had forced her to adhere to some of the same rules. James had been in the Underworld, which means once he was alive and made immortal, he would be free to do as he wished. Unfortunately, just as soon as she had escaped the castle and found the way up to the underworld some three days later, they had caught her. She had been brutally raped and beaten for the effort, by several of his men as well. As an immortal anyone here could look how they liked, and all of them chose to look more or less human, as it made for more living space.

As she entered the kitchen and gave the orders for the food, her last thought was with Harry and James, wondering how they were and how long Harry could last with Caliban hunting him. Harry may be strong, but Caliban was immortal, intelligent, and cruel. Harry stood nearly no chance against him to her knowledge, especially not at the tender age of sixteen…

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Two chapters completed in one day! Must be rabid plot bunnies then. They seem to continue to attack me no matter what I am doing. I hope this gets published the same day I wrote it. I have to leave for something and will do so as soon as I return. In reality though, it is all those views and reviews inspiring me to continue so quickly! Ten thousand views we have reached now. That is more than any other story I have written to date! You are all inspiring my small hopeful career as a writer.**

 **Now on to the reviews!**

 **To Nesciamema: It does suck that it is Lily, but I hope you meant that benignly, as in it sucks for her, not it sucks for the plot. I feel it makes for a very good plot. I hope it doesn't put you off, and that you sort of like it. I shed particular light on that subject as well as more Ginny for you in this chapter as a sort of compensation. Thanks for all your reviews, and for keeping with the story! Keep them up please!**

 **To godofall, and ArthurShade, for continual reviews, thanks! Please keep reading, I am glad you like it thus far!**

 **To ArthurShade once more: Thanks for the review last chapter. It was quite a lot in one hour. This one took considerably longer, but there is more filler information in this one and less action substantially. Fortunately it was all necessary information for the readers to remember, and as such I hope you enjoyed it just as much. It was quite a lot in the terms of romance too, which I admit to being less than stellar with. Hope you continue to read and enjoy!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven:**

Harry had finished his bath after soaking for a long while. He wore his plain black robes. He was aware that this meeting with the Weasleys was likely to be bad, and did not want to further the problem by showing off his expensive new wardrobe. He was extremely worried, more due to actually liking the family and valuing their opinion than anything actually happening to him. Satisfied with his appearance, he took off through the empty house, hearing the elves cleaning the sitting room. He had told them earlier that evening that he would be elsewhere, so to avoid cooking dinner. He knew Molly would likely try to feed him anyway.

The house felt oddly empty without Moody's presence though, was Harry's thought as he wandered down the path to the gates. He missed having someone to debate with and talk to of a morning and evening. He reached the gates, and apparated to the Burrow's front door. Normally, he could have apparated or used the floo to transport himself from the entrance room, but he hated the floo every time he used it, and sometimes he enjoyed a nice stroll down the drive. He enjoyed seeing his immense property, as well as some of the animals playing on it. The sphinx and gryphon had come up to him several times during his many arrivals and departures. He smiled at the thought when he had finally arrived at the front of the Burrow. He knocked on the door a little hesitantly.

Molly appeared at the door and threw it open, beaming at him. He noticed her eyes were still a little watery. She must have cried about it the whole time she was home the poor woman. Harry endured her rib-cracking hug in silence, smiling at her encouragingly when they broke apart.

"The others are in the kitchen at the table, dear. We were waiting on you to start, and I had only just called them down. I do hope you like roast." Molly said, guiding him toward the kitchen with a hand on the small of his back.

"Of course, Mrs. Weasley, especially if it was made by you." Harry replied.

"Aren't you so sweet dear? Have a seat, Harry." Molly replied as she wiped her eyes further and they entered the kitchen. A rousing chorus of welcome hit him as he entered the room. It seemed everyone but Percy was here, including Bill and Charlie, both of whom stood to shake his hand before sitting once more.

Ron got up and clapped him on the back, leading him to a seat to his left, next to his father. Before they made it, Ginny hopped up and gave him another big hug. He hugged her back automatically, and it was several moments before they broke apart. They received a few strange looks, particularly when Ginny blushed, but it went unnoticed otherwise. Harry took his seat after shaking Arthur's hand. He filled his plate with roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a roll. He filled a goblet full of pumpkin juice and tucked in without delay, much to Molly's relief.

The meal passed by easily, and once everyone was eating they broke into individual conversations. Harry listened with half an ear to Ron explaining his summer thus far in great detail. Through the delicious dinner, he did notice that Ginny rarely quit looking at him, whether covertly or openly. When everyone had finished, they all looked between Harry, Arthur, and Molly. Arthur sighed deeply and turned to Harry. "We told everyone about what happened to Molly, as well as Ginny's job once she explained to us what happened with you there. They did not know what you did until today, which I apologize for, but I couldn't keep the details out of it exactly once Ginny agreed to us telling them about her being signed on fully. Besides, I had only just learned about you working there today when Ginny accidentally let it slip she saw you at work."

Harry looked at Ginny until she looked away somewhat uncomfortably. He had already forgiven her for it strangely enough, and to be honest he had intended to tell them anyway. He would have told Molly and Arthur, anyway, but the others knowing made next to no difference to him either. Either way though, he wished she hadn't slipped. He would have liked to choose who learned about it and who didn't, but he understood she was a very much emotion-oriented type of girl, and let those emotions control her actions quite a bit since she knew of Occlumency but had yet to learn how to perform it. Even if she did learn the skill, Harry knew it would be hard for her to disable the way her personality was to adapt to using it.

He turned back to Arthur. "It's fine. I had planned to tell you all anyway. Since you were honest with me at the Ministry today, I suppose it would only be fair in reverse order. I must ask however that anything I tell you all be kept in strictest confidence, by a secrecy oath and no less. Understand that it is not a matter of trust for me, but one of safety. I must keep this secret at all cost."

The family looked at one another in one of those near-Legilimancy moments. Harry, having had no one he was that close to, watched them with a small amount of jealousy. He wished he had someone he could be that close to, someone who knew him in and out, and accepted it. He did not even grow up with the comforting illusion that his family loved him. Rather the opposite in fact. Finally, they all accepted the terms, and all of them gave the oath. Funnily enough, Ginny and the twins had conceded to it first. Harry nodded in thanks, and drew in a deep breath.

He looked at them all in the eyes one by one as he told them everything, starting with Moody showing up, and ending at his meeting Ginny at the Department of Mysteries. He hid nothing except the exact location of where he was staying, and the true extent of his skills. He did concede to say he was staying in Merlin's old home. He also glossed over his confrontation with Ginny slightly. If she had told them, fine, but if not he would rather not bring another round of guilt up for her or them. He felt a weight lifting from his chest when they all nodded understandingly at the end. He saw acceptance and love in their eyes, and breathed in deeply. These people were closer to family to him than anyone.

Molly protested first though, unsurprisingly to him, after he ended his tale and waited for the inevitable questions that would follow. "I never asked beforehand how you got here, but the apparition license explains it. It is hard to accept you are of age now technically. I don't approve wholly of the danger you, or Ginny, are in but I will adapt. My only question is, what about Albus? Shouldn't he be informed of this? He is the Chief Warlock, surely informing him is within the scope of the secrecy charm yes?"

Harry shook his head. "From what I can tell, the minister himself has little to do with the department. As to Dumbledore, that is another subject. I know more of what he has done to control my life, and do not approve of any of it. Not to mention he has stolen money from me as well, and ignored my parent's wishes. I also suspect he is the one behind what happened to you, Mrs. Weasley. Would you agree to me scanning your mind with a curse-residue diagnosis charm?"

Molly looked at Arthur seriously for a moment before nodding. She trusted Harry with her life, but it was rather unsettling to be asked if she could allow someone to mess with her head again so soon. Harry nodded. He had to use this spell once before with Moody, and as usual he had memorized it perfectly. He began moving his wand, tip glowing yellow, over and over around her head in a smooth, circular motion. Everyone watched as runes began to appear next to her head when Harry stopped. He looked at the runes closely for so long that everyone began shifting restlessly, wondering if there was worse news.

In reality, the results were much as he was expecting actually. The first problem stemmed from his Ancient Runes being patchy. He had never studied the subject himself, and it was only his gift from Ravenclaw that allowed him to know them at all. The knowledge was in his mind, but it took so long to remember that he knew he needed to reinforce that knowledge with his own study. The other problem stemmed from the fact that although Harry had suspected Dumbledore's involvement, he never really believed it fully until now, nor had he thought the old man capable of something on this level. This was his grandfather, and though he always had questions, more so now than before, he had always looked up to and respected the man. Now, with too many questions and not enough answers that respect was quickly lost and was easily being replaced with hate.

"It was Dumbledore. I'm sorry, but my runes are a little patchy still, and this is only the third time I have had to confront the old man's treachery." Harry said after turning back to face everyone else too.

"I can't believe he would do such a thing. He was never like this before. In the first war he was so smart and awe-inspiring. Everyone followed him and looked up to him. He could have easily been Minister had he wanted it. Power never seemed to be his calling. Are you sure it was him? There was no chance that the reading was similar to someone else?" Molly asked even as Arthur, Bill, and Harry shook their heads simultaneously.

"Every magical signature is different, mum. Just like no two chickens are exactly the same size and weight, no two magical signatures are exactly alike. There are sometimes similarities between family members, but they are still easily distinguishable." Bill answered her. He was dealing with this easier than his younger siblings. Ginny looked to be on the edge of an explosion, and he wasn't sure about Ron but the latter's face was expressionless for once, and Charlie looked murderous, put simply.

Molly began to sob again and Arthur stood up and walked around the table to comfort her. As he did so, he asked, "What should we do Harry?"

"For now Mr. Weasley, leave it be." Harry answered thoughtfully. "I have a few things stirring with the goblins, and should Molly testify also, it is a clear cut case. I imagine she would be awarded some amount of compensation, although I know only too well that no amount of compensation is enough to gloss over having a rough time of it. Trust me on this, please."

"Arthur, Harry. That is my given name, and you have more than earned its use."

Harry inclined his head, surprised at the gesture. He looked around to see how everyone was taking it. The twins were whispering to one another, but smiled at him when they noticed him watching. Bill was watching his parents closely, but alternated back to Harry once in a while. He stared into Harry's eyes unflinchingly when Harry watched him, and nodded his head respectfully at what Harry had done for them, as did Charlie when Harry looked at him. Ginny was already smiling at him when he looked at her. She knew her family would be fine, and would get over this quickly. She also knew that she would get to see Harry much more often now they worked with one another.

Ron was a separate case. For once he had been quiet and expressionless, until Harry looked at him. He stood and motioned for Harry to follow him. He did so, waiting for the inevitable blow up of jealousy that would cause Ron to ultimately hate him for a little while. Despite the hardships of the situation, he did gain quite a bit as well. Knowledge from Merlin and the Founders was priceless in itself, but he gained their money, stuff, and properties as well. He hadn't thought too much about that until now either. They went into Ron's bedroom where Ron shut the door and collapsed on his bed somewhat apathetically. He seemed devoid of energy.

"You know mate, once I would have been angry at being sidelined again while you got everything like this. Only you would ever get the Founders or Merlin's knowledge and stuff. Typical, right?" Ron said without looking up.

"Ron, I didn't-"Harry began before Ron cut him off, looking up at him with a fierce gleam in his eyes.

"I realized something though. No matter what it is you get, you lose more too. I know you, Harry. If you were going to lose anything in the process, you'd likely find another way to do it. You don't get things, things happen to you. I'm not angry. I am sad about mum, but that seems to be better. Hermione said I had the emotional range of a teaspoon once. It was the only time I've known her to be wrong. I'm _too_ emotional, if nothing else. I don't want to be and I hate it, but it's who I am. This all happening to you, getting their knowledge and stuff, makes me feel like we have a real shot now though. This will help you beat that snake-faced idiot. I promise, I'll be there every step though mate. Even if that means all I do is talk you to death about Quidditch or something to distract you. Pretty good job, if you ask me, though with all your mood swings I will probably need a paycheck soon. I will admit to being jealous over the job though, but I don't think I could do it. Not that I really want you working with my little sister, Potter, but you two have something I don't. I'm not sure what it is, but it's why you fight better than me I think. Chess teaches you these things."

"Who are you and what have you done with Ron?" Harry asked with a huge smile on his face. He was so worried about this that he had not even realized how worried he was until now. It felt as though he had lost a few years in that moment. He continued speaking, happy that he did not have to lose another friendship due to something unusual happening to him again. "You are important in other ways though Ron. Like you said, you keep me on earth. You help me not let the fame get to my head by talking about normal stuff. Your chess skills help too. No matter what we've done, it was usually your tactical skills that helped. You and Hermione fill in the other skills I lack."

"I know, and she tells me pretty much the same thing. I'm done being sentimental though…as soon as you agree that the Chudley Cannons will win this year anyway."Ron said with a grin. Harry laughed and they spent nearly two hours talking about Quidditch and their summers and other less consequential stuff. About two and a half hours later they were interrupted by Molly, asking to speak to Harry. He clapped Ron on the back and followed her down the stairs to the sitting room, assuming a seat on the couch while she and Arthur took the two armchairs facing it.

"Harry, I'm sorry for the way I treated you. I might have been under a curse but it was still wrong. Arthur and I agreed to not tell anyone what it going on and the charm would prevent it anyway. We are going to pay you back everything that we took. It may take a few years, but we will do it. I know you are an adult now, but we agreed that for your own safety, we'd like to know where exactly your house is. If for nothing more than to ease our worry that we could come to see you whenever we feel that worry crop up again. Will you tell us?" Molly asked him. Her voice had cracked a little during her small speech, and Harry's heart nearly broke for her. He knew it would be a long time before she got over it truly.

"I have already forgiven you for the money. I don't want or need it paid back. I also fully know you'll do it anyway, so let me give you two reasons not to. One, if you do I will transfer it back. Two, I gave Fred and George the money to start their business. I own fifty percent of their company, and get paid a fifty percent share. I have all the paperwork at my house. If you want to pay me back, help them or encourage them at their business skills. Besides, as you will soon discover, I and Ginny will be paid very well at our job. It is one of the highest paying jobs in the Ministry. It should be fairly new in the way of experiences as well. As far as I can tell the Founders never did this job, and obviously neither did Merlin. Good thing too, or they would have long since killed our boss, Horace. On the subject of the house, no, I will not tell you where it is." Harry said. He looked at them sternly before a grin popped through the mask as he continued.

"I won't tell you, but I will take everyone there if we can arrange a day Ginny and I are not at work." Harry smiled again at the happy looks on the adult's faces. The couple looked at one another and nodded at him, accepting the idea. "Good, now one more thing. Have you been buying portkeys for Ginny to go to work?"

"No, Marcus provided one free of charge that he renews the charms on every day." Arthur replied.

"Okay, good. Have Ginny use it one more time to get to work tomorrow, and I will start coming here for breakfast every morning at 6:30, if you are agreeable, and I can apparate us to work." Harry said. He stood, stretching, as he awaited their answer. He checked his watch, and upon seeing it was ten at night he decided it was time to get home and in bed. No doubt Horace would be doubly horrible tomorrow after his defeat today.

Arthur and Molly nodded without a second's hesitation. Not only would they see him and ensure he was okay, Molly could also ensure he ate well every morning. Besides, they would much prefer Ginny go with Harry, so they knew she would make it there perfectly safe. Harry hugged them both then, and called out goodbyes as he left the house. Ginny pounced once more before he left and gave him another huge hug, and he apparated home. The Weasley family all stood around a moment after he left, and wordlessly sat down together in the kitchen as a family to discuss everything together, like they had not done for years…

 **Unknown**

"Caliban finally sent in word. He has picked up the boy's scent. Get Dumbledore into position. We move as soon as Caliban has done his work. Go, now. Be ready when I call." The cruel voice spoke again. His servant nodded and hurried off quickly to complete his orders. The cruel lord stood from his throne, and without a second thought he walked off to find his wife. When he was through with her, he would go first to the dungeons, where his old enemy Merlin was chained up. One way or another, he would get the little whelp to speak and tell him the locations of places the boy could be staying. Then, it was time to go hunting. It was nearly time for earth to feel his return, and it would be spectacular…

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Another chapter, done. Another begins! Chapter twelve is in the works guys, although I am unsure when it will be finished. I'm about to have an eventful couple of days here. We are now at twelve thousand views! That is spectacular guys!**

 **Onto the reviews! Thanks to all who did review or message me. It is much appreciated, and I hope it continues.**

 **To Sennybee98: I apologize for no comment last chapter. I posted it before you had commented. Now, I am very happy nothing turned you away from the story thus far. I am also happy to say that your take on Molly and Ginny's reactions was half-correct. Molly was as you expected. Ginny, in my opinion, followed Harry into the department once before and they came out reasonably alright. After that she isn't really going to down talk him on danger. She knows he is in the thick of it, and that nothing she says will change that. The twins and Charlie and Bill felt neglected so I threw them in. There are plans for them in the future, but nothing concrete yet. Ron is obviously a very important character. I get tired of the jealous Ron point of view. Sure, he gets jealous easy, but so does everyone else. Harry gets jealous of Ron's family. Hermione gets jealous of Ron's skill at chess. It's a two-way street. This time, I decided to utilize Ron's skills at strategy and such, but in a different way. While he is important, he will never be a central character. He is there to make sure Harry makes it to the end. Ron realizes that after all these years, and instead of fighting it, he accepts it.**

 **The lord does have family. The way he cares about them will allow him to feel hurt by their loss, but in a different way than we would feel hurt at the loss of our own family. It will be a new way of thinking. Once it is revealed who he is, those things will probably snap in place with an audible click.**

 **As for Albus, he acts too much like a child for me to let him be cured yet…but in all seriousness Harry will eventually find out he is being controlled. The real question is what will have happened to their relationship before that time, and will Harry find out too late to fix the problem?**

 **You were spot on with ninety percent of the money question. There is one thing he will do that no one is likely to expect. I may even get to surprise you with it. What are your thoughts on the use of crystals as power focal points? Instead of Harry being inherently powerful, which he is to an extent probably more powerful than most on a natural level, he uses the crystals to accent his energy levels and to have more power available. This will have to be done with Legilimancy of course, which he will have to learn. He may be inherently powerful to begin with, but Voldemort used dark rituals to get to his power level, which is way above normal or even powerful, and the other enemy has divine type of powers. Thanks for the reviews! I look forward to yours now with every chapter among others.**

 **To Nesciamema: I imagine they will, I just haven't decided on which approach to use to help her do so. Keep in mind it is a dark story and it will get worse, before it gets better. Also, that is a great reference for Caliban. I hadn't thought of it. The name came from another source. There was a book I read, called the ten thousand. The name originated in Greece yes, but had a different background to it.**

 **To Jeramy-Toombs: Glad you like it, please keep up with it, as it will only get better!**

 **To all: Thanks for such great reviews! I am happy to have now gotten out three or four chapters before the New Year! Please continue to read and review! Next chapter we will see more on the Lily situation, and more on Harry's training, possibly a little of his job if I can progress the story enough to that point.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve:**

 **Unknown Location-Unknown Lord of the Realm-One Month Later**

A month after the happy reunion and reconciliation of the Weasley's and Harry Potter, an unknown enemy was at work. The tall, cruel lord walked into a room deep below the castle where he kept his new bride-slave Lily Potter, and conjured a stone chair, shaped much like a throne, for him to sit in. He took his seat, lounging back and studying the room carefully. For all the millennia, he had visited this room and it had never ceased to be a place of beauty to him. When he had built his new fortress, after removing the former ruler of this realm eons ago, he had wanted it to be a place of dread. He had wanted something to strike fear into his enemies.

He had gotten what he wanted, after all, this realm belonged to him. It was his place of power, and it only fed him, responding to his will. Had Merlin attempted to beat him here, he would've been bested, no matter how lucky the annoying little man was, nor how powerful. Only another lord of a realm could truly destroy him. Thus, when he had created the new castle, it sprung up just as he wanted. It had four gates leading through the city portion of it up to the castle, a lava moat, and was large, dark, and imposing. This room, however, was already there when he had the castle built. It had beautiful mosaic tiles on the walls detailing the entire life of the person touching the stone slab in the center of the room. It was truly a beautiful, yet uniquely scary anomaly. To have a life so barren of lies laid open to you was something few can stand unscathed.

It was meant to be a place of beauty, but he was not good, nor caring. He was evil, plain and simple, and freely admitted and acknowledged. He didn't know if this was one of the examples of wild magic at play, or if it was put here by the former ruler of the realm before he grew old enough to take it over, and nor did he care much. He had found his own use for it either way as his own personal torture chamber. The life story appearing made lying essentially a non-issue as he could normally see for himself. However, with the man currently strapped to the stone slab, several parts of his life story were missing.

This occasionally happened if someone had been hit with a memory charm lately, or if an oath or charm was in place, or even if they were dead and brought back by him late enough that patches of their memories had begun to fade. This wasn't the case with this man however, and it irked the lord endlessly trying to figure what the arrogant little fool had done so he could undo it. Along the bottoms of the walls he had arrayed multiple tables filled with differing torture materials. The stone slab that needed to be touched by skin to work the magic, had been fitted with unbreakably enchanted metal shackles that could retract or extend. The stone had been maneuvered and further enchanted so that it would slowly heal whoever touched it and so that it could lie flat or stand straight. Right now, it was standing straight, with his hated nemesis strapped to it: Merlin.

As he remembered everything about the room he was in, he began to reminisce on how he had taken the realm in the first place and got it to the point it was now. It had a booming economy of its own, and his people were content with their lot in life enough to indulge him in letting him play war for another realm. When he had taken the realm from the former ruler, he was smart, careful, and patient. Each realm was its own little world. The only end to the realm was when it went up far enough to reach the Underworld, ran by the little upstart Hades, or when it went down far enough to reach Chaos, his own father. This meant it had a realistic looking sky once, although now that he controlled the realm he had made the sky a pulsing red webbed-like illusion during the day, and purple at night. Anyone coming from another realm would have to be extremely powerful to withstand even the very air going in their lungs. His people had gotten used to it in short order, as being immortal and godlike beings had its perks. His human-like allies and subjects were more powerful than a god and could be classed as titans, and his monsters were more powerful than any realms above him, meaning the Underworld or Earth, and less powerful than the ones below him. Anyone else would be breathing poison, which unfortunately for them, would not kill quickly.

Most of the monsters in his realm were tamable by anyone with the power and knowledge, but a few of them were just too powerful and had to be caged or killed. Even though he possessed the realm, other powers were at work and allowed monsters to be born in his realm the same as any other. Therefore, he had people who hunted and either tamed or killed them before they became menaces. He had first begun taming and killing monsters with his army himself. He had built up an army of twenty-thousand monsters strong, and put everyone to work from there.

His monster army had been put to work layering stones. His monster mages had layered each stone with magic, while his human-like mages had layered thousands of wards over the place. His loyal commanders and lords and ladies of his court had been given high positions in the realm, and put in charge of many different things such as the farming and hunting of food, training his army, organizing and commanding his army, tending to the treasury and economy of the realm, and general day-to-day things.

He contemplated Merlin for a moment. The man was naked, strapped to the stone, as he had been every single day for a very long time. When the man died, and sent him to this realm, he had thought of nothing but revenge. He knew he'd never get it too. It took almost a year before he was informed that only a week had passed in any other realm, and he realized that he could bring people here and make them immortal. He had extended his magic to the Underworld and had taken both Lily and Merlin. At first, he was torturing him for fun. Now, it was serious. He needed to find the boy, potter, and the only way to find him in a protected place was through the man who made the protections. He leaned forward finally, hands clasped together. He picked up a wicked looking knife before turning to Merlin and smiling. While he hoped Caliban would turn up with the boy's head, he wouldn't be too disappointed in failure at it. Merlin had been lucky enough to beat him, his grandson would be disappointing if he couldn't even avoid one of his servants and himself for a long while, and he really did enjoy the process of interrogation.

"Where is the boy likely staying?" The cruel lord asked harshly.

"I don't know." Merlin replied stubbornly.

"I was hoping you would say that." The lord replied, bending over his guest with the knife and a wicked smile on his face as he got to work on the little man for the fifth time that week…

 **Unknown Location-Lily Potter-Meanwhile in the castle…**

Lily Potter-as she used to be, was sitting on her "husband's" bed, thinking hard. Her lord had left to undoubtedly try to torture Harry's location out of Merlin again, which meant she had at least two hours before he expected her back in the bedchambers. While she wasn't necessarily free to roam, there was two sides to him charming her to be immortal and forever look as sexy and beautiful and innocent as she was at seventeen. The downside may have been the abuse, rape, and constant lustful looks in the throne room, but on the other hand, he was constantly underestimating her, or so she hoped. There was always the possibility he knew exactly what she was up to always, but she knew that no matter his power he was not omniscient, and tried not to worry too much about that as nothing could be done for it anyway.

She got up, dressing in a very short dress of deep red and gold, barely covering four inches below her small ass, and put on high heels. She wanted to attempt to play the part of the lord's sex toy/wife as much as possible. While demeaning, dressing the way she does was done for two reasons. One, she had grown up innocent, but had it beaten into her to look her best no matter what so much that it became habit. Two, it reminded people who she was while in his realm. Though most lords and ladies and people of importance knew she was merely a plaything for their lord, she still held the title of lady of the realm as his wife, and therefore they usually didn't question her if she looked and acted like she belonged wherever she was at the time. Today, that place was the royal treasury. Officially, she wanted gold to go shopping for a few things of interest to her husband. Realistically, she wanted to take and hide as many of her husband's ancient spell books to send to earth somewhere Harry would hopefully find it as she possibly could get away with. She knew the consequences would be severe when he eventually found out what she was doing, and even worse if he caught her at it, but her maternal instincts wouldn't allow her to just sit this out and pray for her son to win. Bearing this in mind, she took off down the hall to the treasury.

She walked down the hall, past guards and one or two lords and ladies, and thankfully no inquisitive children, arriving at the door to the treasury in blissful peace with no questions asked. She slipped inside, automatically spelling the door shut when it closed behind her. She began gathering up the books very quickly, stuffing them into a small trunk from one of the other vault rooms. She closed the trunk as the last of his spell books and scrolls were in it. Muttering a spell, she shrunk the trunk to pocket-size, and held it tightly in her hand, before slipping out of the vaults and walking briskly down the hall with a mischievous gleam in her eyes….

 **Department of Mysteries—Harry Potter**

Harry groaned, picking himself up off the floor once more. He was in the training room with Ginny and Horace, and Horace had once again knocked him flat. He hadn't met the third member of his team yet, nor, according to Horace, would he until he was trained up to par. His magical strength was unparalleled, his speed in the top five of the department, his knowledge of offensive and defensive spells getting better daily as he absorbed more and more of Merlin and the Founders memories leaving him in the top ten, and his reflexes superb, yet Horace had experience. Experience was the one thing Harry had a severe lack in. Compared to his schoolmates, he had a distinct experience advantage, but compared to a field operative at work he was still a child.

"Again, recruit, and this time let's see it work properly!" Horace yelled at him as he began testing Ginny while Harry found his feet. They were working on a particularly difficult shield charm that Harry felt sure was not normally taught to recruits despite what Horace claimed. The "Imprimis Shield" was a shield the covered your entire body from head to toe, front and back, and deflected nearly everything except the imperius and killing curse. Even the pain curse, while not totally blockable, was reduced enough to be manageable. It was a newly developed shielding spell, which explained why Harry didn't already know of it. He was amazing at offense, but his defensive skills, while still in the top ten, were not quite as good.

Ginny was a bit better at charms, long range casting, and knew healing spells, but her offense and defense lacked somewhat. She was a decently powerful witch, and was still considered quite good at offense and defense, but without the advantages Harry had, she couldn't even begin to come close to his level. Horace foresaw some sort of romance in their eyes and voice when they spoke to one another, and although he kept it to himself, he trained her one bit better than usual in case that ever made her a target. Not that he would ever admit to himself he cared for her wellbeing on a personal level.

"Yes, sir." Harry said, somewhat sarcastically. He was getting a bit angry now, but reigned in his temper and tried again just as Ginny fell to the ground again, her shield broken.

"Imprimis!" Harry intoned a little harshly, raising his wand in front of him like a sword. An electric blue shield rose up around his body, sparking outwards angrily, much to his own surprise.

"Very good, recruit. You may end up not being _entirely_ useless." Horace said nastily as he raised his wand at Harry. He shot off a bone shattering hex at Harry's left leg, quickly followed by a disarming, stunning, and cutting hex. All of them bounced off the shield, and Harry looked none the worse for wear, so Horace shot off six more hexes and curses in rapid succession.

"Good work, recruit, now go get washed up and meet us in the team room. You smell like manticore piss." Horace said before turning back to Ginny, who was breaking a sweat to hold her new shield in place. Harry did as he was told, resisting the urge to say something snarky in return. Sometimes that man really irritated him.

Horace had upheld his word fully though. In the past month, Harry had learned more spells and charms, hexes and curses than he had thought possible. There were many defensive charms for every imaginable situation, several varying detection, tracking, and hiding charms than he thought possible, and even more hexes, jinxes, and curses to make up for the rest. He had also learned many rituals, runes and their applications, as well as transfigurations to help with everyday life plus battle scenarios. On top of it all he had been taught about various magical traps, objects, and wards. He had studied all these subjects in depth on his own as well, both through his newly received memories, and his immense library. On the rare occasion that he did not have a book or scroll on a subject, he had a long-standing order at Flourish and Blotts for new and used books and scrolls, as well as anything rare they received he was given first dibs at.

It took Ginny a further half an hour before she satisfactorily cast the shield charm. Harry spent that time wondering how Moody's home was coming along. The man visited him twice a week, and he usually visited him once a week himself once he had taken him to his new manor home the first time. It was a beautiful home, though nowhere near the size or grandeur of Phoenix Manor. Moody had hired four house elves for the upkeep of the manor, and two to assist his everyday life at home when he was off work.

Ginny and Horace came back into the room, and Ginny took a seat next to Harry, her pretty face flushed red from her exertions. Harry barely had a moment to think about how pretty it made her look before Horace pulled out a blackboard and a human-like dummy, and laid the dummy on the table. Ginny and Harry both gave each other a blank look before resigning themselves to their fate and giving Horace their full attention. Harry hadn't done so once, when it was early in the morning and he hadn't slept that night due to his studying habit that night, and the resulting stinging hex had quickly changed his mind.

"This is a healing dummy. We will be seeing which one of you is actually worth something in the healing department, and which one of you I want to stay clear of me in the field if I ever get hurt. The incantations of the healing spells you must learn to be ready are one the board. This will be your training daily until you _both_ can manage at least two out of the six spells on the board." Horace said before tapping his wand on the dummy, which immediately had realistic bones pop out of the skin, several cuts appeared, as well as a weird hacking cough that Harry assumed was associated with some spell they had to detect and diffuse. Horace walked out of the room as Ginny and Harry both groaned and got up to attempt the healing spells after writing them all down. Harry grimaced at the gory dummy, but reassured himself about the spells, reasoning that Merlin, the Founders, and some of the books he read lately left him with a reasonable ability to heal, and a large wealth of knowledge on how to best do it. Leaning over, he began by detecting the curse or hex used to start the coughing, with the reasoning that the spell may also have caused or could be causing some other issues with the dummy/patient…..

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Firstly, I apologize for the EXTREMELY long delay in getting the chapter pumped out. It sat half-finished for a very long time before I got around to finishing it up. It's been very rough for me lately, and I am happy to say that things will possibly be looking up now. I can't promise daily updates, but I will try for one every week or at the most every other week. Since things are just now looking better, I cannot promise on that but I will try. Thank you to everyone who reads this story and keeps up with it, and a very big thank you to anyone who reviews. In the interests of this chapter leaving my computer and being posted soon, I did not answer reviews this chapter. Next chapter, I will answer any reviews this chapter receives, and we will see a little more of Harry/Ginny and their job. This chapter was of necessity, more about Lily and her mysterious master, so that I can further the plot before it thickens again. Remember that as of this moment, Harry is clueless about her and her master/husband, and his biggest concern is that of Dumbledore and Voldemort.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen:**

 **Department of Mysteries-Harry Potter-One week later**

"A-ha!" Harry exclaimed in a happy tone. He had been working for a week on the healing dummy and had just managed to grasp the fifth and final spell in front of Horace. Ginny had managed the healing spells nearly instantly, having to only use two days to familiarize herself with doing it under pressure. Harry had taken nearly five days, not because he didn't understand the spells or concepts of the spells, but because of his power level. He had understood the spells, his knowledge from Merlin and the Founders assisting him in understanding the concepts and finer points behind them, but his power level was so high that he overpowered the spells so much that they ended up harming the patient more than healing them. It had taken him a solid week before he could fully understand how to limit his power levels for different spells, keeping his power on lockdown and only releasing so much at a time as needed. This required copious amounts of research at his library at home, and even more practice, starting at offensive spells and working his way down.

"Don't lose your head recruit. You may have healed him, but hypothetically you will be in the field, it won't be a dummy, and there will still be a battle going on around you. Wouldn't it be grand if you just finished healing your teammate, and jumped up in excitement to catch a killing curse to the face? Although, I suppose that telling _you_ that is just a waste of my breath." Horace said, examining the dummy minutely. Harry glared at the back of Horace's head, angry at his Snape-like demeanor, but properly chastised enough to stay quiet and not take the bait, recognizing the sense behind the words.

"Well, looks like you are up for an adjustment, recruit. Might even have to give you a name now. Can't have one of our better recruits going by recruit, now can we? Might raise a few eyebrows. I'll test Ginevra, and you will run over to your team briefing room and await us there." Horace said, forcing his prideful smile not to show. Harry nodded and walked out of the room after a quick hug from Ginny.

As he arrived in the team room and sat down, he took out his money pouch and counted carefully. He had his bank card for most purchase, but he always kept a pouch with five-thousand galleons on his person in case he wanted to make minor purchases, or alternatively, secret purchases that he wanted no one else aware of. Satisfied the full five-thousand was in the pouch, which took nearly fifteen minutes, he tied it off and put it back in the pocket of his work robes just as Ginny walked in and plopped down next to him.

Harry couldn't help but notice the way her work robes clung to her ever-changing womanly curves, just the right size to him despite her petite body. They had been growing closer and closer, working so closely with one another every day as well as eating breakfast together every work day, and on quite a few occasions dinner as well. Although he attempted to act properly around her parents, he thought Mrs. Weasley knew Harry was feeling differently towards Ginny by the way she smiled at them when she thought they weren't looking, and Mr. Weasley was far from stupid. Ginny smiled at him as she sat next to him, and he looked over at her.

"Tonight, can you see if your family wants to come over to the house? If you all want to get that tour of the place, I can stop by an hour after we get off and side apparate us all there. Of course, we will have dinner there too. Dobby and Winky go overboard when it comes to dinner as it is, this will give them a chance to stretch their wings so to speak and go all out." Harry said. Ginny nodded to him and whispered, "Expecto Patronum," and spoke her message to it. She hadn't quite gotten to soundless casting for charms, but had managed to the point of no longer shouting the spells at least. The patronus charm variant they had learned last week, which she was now using, allowed the caster to send their patronus to people with messages, which was a much more quick and reliable way to send them.

As the patronus faded, Horace and Marcus walked in. Horace took the seat at one end of the table. Marcus, wasting no time, took out his wand and motioned for them to stand. They complied, and he walked over in front of Ginny, tapped her robe with his wand, and made some adjustments. When he stepped back, her bars had all changed. The offensive bars had four out of five red, the blue defensive bars had four out of five as well, and the yellow healing bars were at a full three. Her unforgivable bars were at two of three. The other bars showed her as a level one operative on team three. She smiled, satisfied with her results as Marcus stepped over in front of Harry, tapped his robe, and stepped back once more. Harry looked down at himself.

His offense, defense, healing, and unforgivable were all full-on bars. His status bars now showed him as a level two operative of team three. Marcus walked over to the other end of the table and pulled out a folder from his robes and expanded it to normal size as he said, "We promoted you to a level two operative for two reasons. One, your skills are unparalleled with healing aside, and two, because out of the available recruits and current members you have the highest leadership skills. You are untested in the field but your previous extra-curricular activities have proven you can handle the stress of command. A level two operative may lead a team, though it will raise an eyebrow or two. Should you succeed in three missions, I will promote you to a level three operative. In two minutes, you will meet your third and final teammate. You will familiarize yourselves with each other, and be here for team training tomorrow at the usual time. That is all."

With that, the harassed-looking man walked out, presumably to his office. Horace, however, remained stoically seated, eyes on Harry, who in turn noticed the elder man's wand was in his hand, though resting in his lap. Wondering why such a precaution was warranted or if he had done anything wrong, Harry and Ginny turned as one to face the door as it opened. A tall, black robed man walked in. His hood shadowing his face, his robes billowing out behind him, and his walk reminding Harry of a tiger prowling dangerously searching for prey told Harry this man was a graceful, deadly fighter. Dismissing the notion of the man seeming strangely familiar, Harry and Ginny both removed their hoods, deciding unanimously that if the man was to be on their team, honor dictated he know both who they were, and in Harry's case, what he may be getting into. Besides, Horace was there to modify memories if it didn't work out. The man looked the both up and down, seeming taken aback, before reaching both hands up and lowering his hood.

Black silky hair fell over both sides of the man's face, and the bangs partially concealing his pitch black, keenly intelligent eyes. "Well, well, if it isn't our residential celebrity. You are aware of just how many people are looking for you aren't you, Mr. Potter?" Severus Snape drawled snidely, though for once his expression spoke volumes of curiosity instead of pure malice…..

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry-Lily Potter**

She ran through the halls of her old school as alarms began blaring. She had not known that Hogwarts was old enough to have wards that alarmed in case of opening portals. Though the wards had shut down the portal, they had allowed her in, recognizing her as a former student. Remembering what James had said once about the Marauders Map, and knowing Harry now possessed it, she went straight for the Prefects bathroom. It also allowed her access without even a password, having had her signature keyed to it when she was a prefect. If Harry had any sense and access to this bathroom, he would find the packages and letter she left him. She hoped it wouldn't take too long, but she could not leave it in a more open and less secure place. Her power would be unrivaled by most of the school with her ascension to godhood, but who knew where her husband's agents would be? At least here she knew fewer people had access.

Leaving the package in one of the stalls hidden by invisibility charms and setting an alarm that would go off when it detected her child's magical signature, she rushed out of the bathroom. As she exited and turned to take a secret passage to Hogsmeade to portal home, she saw a very, _very_ , familiar face materialize in front of her, blocking her path.

"Lily?" Albus Dumbledore inquired softly in shock. Even though she knew he was being controlled, the way he said her name gave her pause, as if he were genuinely in shock as the real Dumbledore would have been. After all, you don't see dead women stalking the halls looking just as they did as a teenager every day. Then again, they were at Hogwarts, and sad though it was to say stranger things had occurred there.

"Father?" She replied in an unsure tone. Dumbledore's face morphed further into shock for a split moment.

"How-?" Dumbledore began to ask before his face changed once more. "Naughty, naughty girl. You snuck out again. What are you doing in Hogwarts, my dear? I'm going to have to punish you now. Come back, and we can make this more pleasant than if I must have one of my servants drag you here. I will have my minion lift the wards to raise a portal." He said in the demonic voice she had come to know so well. After said person had moaned, grunted, and groaned things in her ear as he violated her sweet body, he had rather lost his touch of fear over her that his voice held over anyone else. Besides, she knew what going back would incur, and she realized for the first time that she had the choice to not go back. Not that she had anywhere else to go, but knowing what awaited her at home she wasn't so sure that was a very bad thing anymore. Getting kidnapped, turned into a god/goddess, beaten and raped and abused for centuries, and being forced to smile prettily and like it all has a way of helping you prioritize things and stiffen your spine.

"No." Lily replied. She rolled her sleeves up in preparation to do magic. If she was to die, and she had no illusions about beating him especially in her father's body, then she would die fighting. James had died fighting to protect her and their son. The least she would do if she was to die would be to honor that sacrifice. This time, there would be no return. Even if a muggle killed her, as a goddess she would fade permanently. There were no rules about killing goddesses or titans, so long as they didn't possess a realm. Unfortunately, people like her husband had to be killed in their realm or by someone of equal power to die and fade properly.

"Very well, then we will-…" Her husband's voice was cut off as Lily let loose a spell. Her new husband had a penchant for theatrics, and her time with him had taught her the best way to win anything with him, even an argument, was to cut him off before he got started. Her spell choice however, only worked one in a thousand times for even someone at her power levels, and this seemed to be that time. It was a soul disconnection spell. It severed any soul binding or possession in a fifty-foot radius, and it was permanent in the way that no one could ever possess that person again without destroying their soul entirely. The spell essentially prevented two souls in the same body. Her husband gave an earth-shattering scream of rage before his orange eyes faded back to her father's blue ones as the old man slumped forward onto the floor in front of her.

Though she had no idea how to go about what would come next as she was _supposed_ to be dead, she knew her father would die without medical attention so without further ado, she levitated his body and began the trek to the hospital wing in complete, total silence, foreboding climbing through every inch of her body with every step she too. She plotted her next move with every step, and came to a decision as she reached the infirmary. She set her father's body right outside it on a conjured stretcher and conjured parchment and tapped her wand to it. A very long letter wrote itself out, picking out what she wanted to say from her mind before sealing itself so only her father could read it, leaving her magical signature on it as proof that it was no trap. She knocked on the door and ran off to the nearest secret passage as soon as she heard footsteps….

 **Capital Castle in Tartarus**

"God DAMN her!" Tartarus yelled in rage as he killed one of the servants he had sent to check his vaults when he had ordered everything checked on a whim to see if everything was still in place. He had just been told his treacherous wife had stolen his spell books and scrolls. His two best servants, Caliban and his own son Nikolai, threw the other servants behind them as they reached the door and quickly left, shutting it behind them and keeping the others trapped inside.

Tartarus' hands swept back and forth, fire spewing out of both and roasting his other servants alive as he vented his anger. This was HIS realm, with HIS rules, and it was HIS own damn wife who had betrayed him. He should never have allowed her so much freedom, but damn it he thought he had begun to curb that rebellious attitude. Angrier than ever, he stalked down the halls towards the subbasement where he was holding Merlin. The man would give him answers or he would rip them out of his mind, consequences be damned. The stupid slut would be back in his bed soon, and he would show the little bitch what happens when you start a war with him when he would gut her son in front of her slowly.

Had he not been so angry, he would have noticed the portal that opened in the bedroom. As it closed, a girl tumbled out of it and hurriedly rushed to the balcony and leapt out the window, a spell keeping her aloft until she softly hit the ground and began running….

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Two days in a row! Whew! This chapter, as promised shows the plot thickening quite a bit more as we expand on what happened in the previous chapter. I want to say a big thank you to everyone as well. Previously, we were at 19,000 views. We have now reached over 23,000 overnight! It may not seem much to some people, but being my first story I am extremely excited to see such support.**

 **Sennybee98-As you can see by this chapter you were correct in your assessment on the lord. Now you can see that even with his new powers, Harry will be significantly challenged and even outmatched. I am glad I am finally making a return as well. I've been missing writing on this story, and I have many planned after this one is finished.**

 **ArthurShade and GodOfAll-Thank you for the repeated reviews. It definitely boosts my self-esteem to know others enjoy the story as much as I enjoy writing it.**

 **Nesciamema-I am glad you are enjoying Lily's adventures and I assure you they will be continuing as a main theme in the story. You were close in guessing Erebus but Tartarus struck me as more evil and he was the one I had planned this whole time. On the subject of Ginny and Harry, I plant to have him share the knowledge but I am not sure when. They are growing closer but after all the recent events there are sure to be some issues in there as well, even if it is just as simple as Harry being more secretive than usual.**

 **Again, thank you to everyone who viewed and reviewed the story! It is a pleasure to write and I enjoy doing so very much. I am pleased to say that the next chapter is in the works, though I make no promises on the release day.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen:**

 **Department of Mysteries-Harry Potter**

Harry stared into Snape's eyes in shock, his mind whirling from curiosity to anger as his most hated professor stared right back at him. His eyes flipped to Horace as he spoke, a definite warning tone in his voice as he did so.

"Now, now, everyone needs to settle down. I imagine everyone is slowly recovering from their shock, and yes, I was very aware of the mutual hatred that Potter and Snape share for one another. That does NOT mean that I will accept a full on duel occurring here and now." Horace said, watching all three closely.

Severus Snape turned to the son of his most hated enemy. "Now I understand why you kept the identities of each of us secret from the other Horace. Surely you don't expect me to take orders from this _boy_? He is mediocre at best with magic, barely understands how Occlumency and Legilimency works, and cannot keep a secret to save his life. A true _Gryffindor_ through and through."

Horace opened his mouth to reply, but Harry beat him to it. "Mediocre, is it _professor_? I faced down your _master_ more than once and escaped. I dealt with you in my head for a whole year of worthless lessons, and came out unscathed. It's your fault that Sirius is dead! You should have taught me properly! If I am so mediocre, then maybe you should have been there to help me when he died, since your skills are apparently so superior. You-" Harry yelled, before being cut off by a small warm hand on his shoulder. Turning slightly to look Ginny in the eyes, he used his occluding techniques to calm his emotional storm. Ginny turned to Snape with a glare.

"You speak of mediocre talents, but what about mediocre personalities? You lash out at him and bring him down and expect him to get better? You are no better than those who tormented you. I'm not stupid you know? I've seen the way you and Sirius used to act towards each other, and I can tell there was history there. I don't know exactly what happened but due to your bitterness I am of the opinion he bullied you at some point in your life. Probably Harry's family and their other friends too, but that sure as hell doesn't give you the right to immediately treat their _son_ as though he had done so personally. Imagine how you would treat anyone who took out their problems with you on your own children. _That_ is what's pathetic, _professor_." Ginny said in quiet, scathing tone. Grabbing Harry's arm, she began leading him out.

Before leaving the room, Harry turned to Horace. "We will work with him and do our job, but don't expect any mutual respect to come out of this." As he turned and shut the door, he caught a glance of Snape's face. Surprisingly, instead of verbal evisceration he had expected Ginny's impassioned speech to incur, he saw shock and a tiny amount of guilt in the man's eyes. He heard a sigh escape the man's mouth as he shut the door forcefully, and grabbed Ginny's hand to apparate them away.

 **Department of Mysteries-Severus Snape**

Severus started as he felt a hand on his shoulder. "You know, that probably wasn't the correct opening words to a productive work environment. Just remember, I've been inside your mind Severus. I quite understand the way you act, and why it is so. I also completely understand why you chose to excel at Occlumency so much that no one could ever break in again. Just because I understand however, I expect you to be an adult and make this arrangement work. We need all teams fully functional. With the reappearance of Voldemort, and your intimate knowledge of his dealings, we need you on one of the teams. We can't keep you backseat as a spy anymore. You are too good of a duelist to not utilize your skills, and the information you have provided on Voldemort and Dumbledore have been worrying in the extreme. Potter will need someone watching his back whether he knows it or not, although seeing his skills up close I sometimes find myself wondering why he would need help at all. You have experience Severus, and I can only entrust his protection from Voldemort and those around him to you."

Horace walked back to his seat and turned back to him as he sat down. "Sit, Severus. Tell me, does Dumbledore know that you have swapped the holder of the vows you made him to myself?"

Severus sat in a chair across from Horace, the interrogation temporarily removing the shock from his system. He had not been spoken to like Weasley had in a long while. Her words were so spot on they had shocked him to the core, and for the first time in a while he felt regret for his actions towards Potter. Setting those thoughts aside momentarily, he answered. "No, he remains ignorant of the differences in the bond. It remains active no matter the holder, as we thought, and therefore he felt no change."

"Good. That keeps things simple. Obliviating him would be easier said than done, and I think Potter and Voldemort would be the only ones able anyway. Does Voldemort suspect anything off with your allegiance?"

"I believe he is slightly suspicious, as any would be in his position, but I am afforded a higher level of trust than most of the other death eaters. To forestall you asking this next, no, nobody has found any leads to Potter yet either." Snape responded, his brow furrowing as the topic returned to the very person he was avoiding thinking of.

"I believe, Severus, that the time has come to start pushing back slightly. First, although we have more liberties than even the auror department, we need to be able to push missions without approval from the Minister. The current minister would never give our department the freedom needed as it would mean a loss of control for him. Marcus is going to start pushing our contacts, but I am not sure if that is going to work. Instead, since we cannot begin missions on our own, It would be useful for a few death eaters to sabotage some auror missions to show our minister in a poor light. He stages raids that he knows will be a success and only shows those to the public. Usually a member of the daily prophet is present to report on the raid. I am trusting you to ensure the aurors on the jobs are relatively unharmed, and that the missions fail. With enough failure shoved in their face, Marcus's task will be easier as department heads realize Fudge's incompetence level. This is off the books entirely and only you and I will know about it. Other than this, your original orders stand. Look after Potter as best you can, and do try to get along better next time, Severus." Horace said, before turning away in a clear dismissal, looking at the team board detailing the last practice spells Potter and Weasley had learned.

Severus got up and walked out of the door before apparating home. As he arrived and walked through the gates of Snape Manor, previously Prince Manor, his only thought was about Potter. As much as he previously and currently regretted his actions towards the boy, in public they were necessary to maintain his cover on all sides. Perhaps working in a team environment, he could slowly ingratiate himself to the boy….man. He was an adult now, and if he had become that much then surely he had noticed that he was the Lord of several Ancient and Noble Houses, and he would have to remember that. He himself was a Lord, but only of a Noble House. The Prince family had fallen from grace a few years before he was born and had fallen from their Ancient and Noble status. He needed to start basing his feelings for Potter on the man himself, rather than the people before him, and he needed to stop seeing Lily every time he looked in his green eyes.

Walking into the doors of his home, he immediately went to his liquer cabinet and poured himself a tumbler of strong brandy. He sat down in his favorite armchair, and thought about the whole situation as his house elves popped in front of him with his dinner. He pinched the bridge of his nose after thanking the elves before they popped away, thinking to himself. _"Potter, you are undoubtedly going to be the death of me."_

 **Phoenix Manor-Harry Potter**

Harry walked into the dining room, and sat at the head of the table. The Weasley's followed in behind him, various looks of amazement on their faces as they took their seats, Ginny on his left, Arthur at the other head of the table, Ron on Harry's right, and Hermione right beside him, the latter had shown up at the Burrow that same day. They had just finished the tour. Arthur and Molly were fascinated by the amazing kitchen and dining space, the twins had adored his Potions Lab and Practice Room, and Ron was enamored with the bedrooms and of course, the quidditch pitch. Ginny absolutely adored the swimming pool and quidditch pitch, while Hermione, predictably, was in love with the library and surprisingly, the crystal room. Harry smiled, happy to have company again, as he stood after everyone was seated at the dining table. All the glasses filled with a rather expensive red wine. After all the tastings Harry had done in the alcoholic drinks section of the house, he liked wine the most. He absolutely loved the tastes. He surprisingly didn't really dislike any sort of alcohol he had tried, but he knew better than to get too drunk on his power levels.

Harry raised his glass in a toast. "To family." He said simply. Those few words conveyed more than any impassioned speech could, bringing tears to the women's eyes, and even Arthur looked suspiciously watery-eyed. The Weasley family stood and raised their glasses in kind, echoing the sentiment. As they all drained their glasses, a drink menu appeared next to each plate. They all sat down, just as the food appeared. Just as Harry had planned, partially out of a desire to show off a bit and partially to show appreciation for these people feeding and housing him over the years, the food was varied and spectacular.

The elves had outdone themselves this time when Harry had specified what he wanted. A large trout lay on a bed of greens, filleted to perfection. Next to that was a large plate that was filled with an entire side of roasted beef followed by two bowls, one full of green beans and the other with carrots, which in turn lay next to a plate full of lobster surrounded by shrimp. A plate of meatloaf was nearby, surrounded in turn by plates full of rolls, hot loaves of sourdough bread, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, and a bowl of beef stew. A plate full of different blocks of cheese sat nearby, and a tub of white gravy, a tub of chicken gravy, immediately followed by a tub of brown gravy finished off the main courses.

As one, the Weasley family took in the expensive dinner in amazement before everyone began digging in at once. Once every plate was full, they all turned towards Harry, respectfully waiting for the master of the house to take the first bite. Drawing on his memories he had gotten from both the founders and merlin themselves, plus the ones he had taken out of the pensieves he had taken from their vaults, he realized this was an old custom that had begun when poisoning was rampant between great houses. The host would then sample the food one by one, to show it was not poisoned, before the guests dug in themselves. The custom had long since fallen into tradition and most had forgotten the purpose. Smiling, Harry quickly sampled each dish, before turning back to his own plate.

The dinner passed quickly, nearly every course being slowly emptied over time. It was a pleasant evening. Ron and Hermione were engaged in a conversation over classes, or argument would be a better example, while the twins were speaking to their mother about their plans for the future. Arthur, Harry, and Ginny were all involved in conversation over politics within the Ministry. Although originally he thought he would hate politics, Harry found himself drawn to the idea behind them. He proved to be a quick mind at it, and a natural at guessing the reasons behind people's maneuvers. He knew he could get involved himself, but decided to wait until he was ready with all of his other plans first. Molly looked up, and checked her watch, finally noticing the time. Given it was summer break, she didn't mind her children staying up late, particularly since Harry had extended his hospitality till the end of summer break and there wouldn't be a need for chores.

"I think Arthur and I will head to bed, Harry dear. Do try not to stay up too late, you lot." She said to her children. Normally she'd include Harry in this, but given it was his home and he was an adult, she wouldn't have felt right ordering him around. Arthur and Molly walked to the bedroom, and slowly the rest drifted off, the twins to the practice room, and Hermione and Ron to their respective bedrooms, leaving Harry and Ginny at the table. Her eyes lingered on him for a moment, taking in his newly muscular form. She was closer and more attracted to him now than she had ever been.

"I'm going to go for my nightly swim. Care to join me Gin?" Harry said, standing. Ever since starting his own training regimen, he had woke up and swam once in the morning, and once at night. It increased his endurance and strength. Ginny nodded, blushing slightly. She ran up to her room to change and by the time she had found a particularly revealing glittering pink bathing suit that fit her and got back to the pool area, Harry was already doing laps around the heated underground pool, shirtless and in void black swimming trunks. Watching him for a moment while biting her lower lip, she felt her hormone level rise significantly. Turning her eyes away, she jumped in, and began swimming laps too.

Harry noticed her scrutiny but opted to finish his laps in silence. When he was done, he leaned against the side of the pool, feeling himself harden at the site of her perfectly rounded, small ass wiggle back and forth as she swam the length of the pool. When she popped up near him, he blushed lightly at her intense gaze. She too, had caught him watching. "See something you like, Mr. Potter?" Ginny teased slightly, coming to a stop millimeters away from him. Harry's blush intensified.

"Well, there is this extremely hot girl with this extremely pretty face in front of me." Harry replied before he caught himself and winced. Ginny, on the other hand, smiled prettily, a heavy pink blush rising in her cheeks. Before she could stop herself, she leaned forward slightly. Harry replicated the movement, before his courage could desert him, and pressed their lips together lightly. The kiss deepened, and his left hand came up to rest on her cheek, while his right slipped to her lower back. Ginny moaned into his mouth, before they broke apart for air.

"Wow." That was all Harry could manage before Ginny hugged him so tightly that he felt as though he was being crushed. "Does this mean that you wouldn't mind being my girlfriend Ginny?"

"I'd better be." Ginny said sternly, then her face melted into an extremely happy expression as she kissed him again, this time much more passionately. Although he worked hard to ensure his erection didn't grind against her in any way and that his hands only went to acceptable places, he couldn't help but put both hands on her wonderful ass and squeeze gently. He was rewarded with a loud moan into his mouth, so he did it again more roughly. They broke apart, and noticed a golden glow around them before it faded. Searching Merlin's memories, he found a name, soul bond. What it was, he didn't know, as he related to Ginny a moment later, but he resolved to study it further first thing in the morning. He did notice however, that in a corner of his mind a new door had opened. In it, he noticed a pull to where Ginny was, along with a very deep affection for the girl. He already cared for her greatly after so many years around each other, so it didn't bother him much to discover he may feel even more deeply for her than he previously thought.

"I'd better get to bed or I won't wake tomorrow, even with occlumency." Ginny said as they broke apart. She sounded as though she didn't want to and a little unsure of herself. Harry had an inkling the same thing was created in her mind as well and she didn't have a clue what it meant either. Checking the time and finding it to be one in the morning, he nodded.

"I'd better go too. Might be my house and all, but I very seriously doubt your mother would prevent tearing a strip out of me if she found me alone with you at this hour." Harry joked. They both climbed out and Harry dried them with a charm. They shared another long, deep kiss before heading up together to their separate bedrooms, but not before Ginny noticed the tent in the front of his shorts. Blushing again, this time with satisfaction that she affected him in such a way, she went to her room as both of them turned in to sleep. A short time later another door opened and shut as Molly Weasley crept back into her room she shared with her husband, grinning to herself as she held a hand out to her waiting husband and he deposited a galleon in it. Sometimes being a mother had perks, and knowing things was one of them. She smiled to herself. _"They really are a cute couple, but if he wants to take it further then he'd better have a plan for their future. He's a sweet man, and powerful too, but my Ginny does have her temper. He will have his work cut out for him."_ Chuckling to herself quietly, she slipped in bed with her man, where he proceeded to turn towards her and snog her senseless. There was a reason they had so many children after all…..

 **Tartarus-Capital Castle**

Finally, _finally_ , he had found out why Merlin wouldn't answer his questions. The man had obliviated his own memories, and stored them in a pensieve before confronting him. It was smart, but that was fine. He had left the man to his son's attentions while he went and readied his armies. He had a monster army, numbering nearly five thousand strong, and a manpowered army numbering nearly fifty thousand. They were all armed to the teeth in obsidian armor and swords, bows and arrows, spears, and axes all made of obsidian. Obsidian could be mined in his realm, and only two other places on earth, making it near impossible to attain there. It could reflect magic and channel it respectively. It replaced wands for his army, all of whom were powerful enough for wandless casting anyway, having had hundreds to thousands of years to train. On black steeds made of pure dark magic, his five generals sat. The nobles would be left behind to deal with day-to-day things of his realm, including his son. The generals had been with him since he had taken this realm. They were all uniquely powerful after over fifty thousand years of training. They were all dressed in uniquely enchanted black battle robes, while he himself was dressed in red and gold royal battle robes.

The human forces would take nearly six months to a year to ready as they traveled from each corner of his realm. The monsters had all been instantly drawn here over the last few years. They were ready. He gave the order, sending them to Hades realm along with three of his top generals to command them. They were to take the Underworld, and transfer the power of it to his right hand man, Caliban's control. He would rise to the underworld soon after, and take his armies above ground, through one of the exits to earth. He smiled grimly to himself after sending them off, before taking off to visit one of his many concubines. The earth would belong to him soon, and he would turn his gaze downwards, seeking control of his father's realm, Chaos, in order to gain the immense power gathered there…..

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Here we have yet another chapter. This one was slightly longer than the others. I am endeavoring to keep chapters close to the same length. After this story, the next one I write will be having extremely long chapters and will be much more detailed. We saw quite a bit more of Harry and Ginny in this chapter, as well as giving an insight to one of my favorite characters of the series, Severus Snape. Severus will be getting a prime spot in most of the rest of this story, but will be nowhere near eclipsing Harry and Ginny, have no fear. Thank to everyone for keeping up, the next chapter will be up as soon as I can manage. On to the personal responses!**

 **GreyandMint-Thank you for reviewing the story, and as to the girl, I must say that if you haven't guessed, all will be revealed in time. Don't you just love people being told that in every story ever read?**

 **Nesciamema-Thank you for reviewing once more. I didn't want to get into every detail of showing off every room, but I did write a reaction for each of the Weasley's present. Lily didn't get a showing in this as she is currently busy travelling but she will make an appearance soon. As for Snape, Harry and Ginny didn't quit necessarily, but they certainly weren't happy to see him and were much less happy with his attitude and opening sentence. Thanks for reviewing, hope to hear from you again!**

 **ArthurShade and Scrappy8-Thank you for your repeated reviews!**

 **Smallwjl-Thank you for reviewing and joining us on the journey! I hope you proceed to enjoy the story as it unfolds.**

 **Meekerprincess9778-I am glad to hear you are enthralled with the story! I am quite happy with it myself and it is turning out great. I hope you keep up with it and hope to hear some of your thoughts on how it is going or what you would like to see. I rarely incorporate ideals into the story once I have started writing a chapter but some people have some wonderful ideals I can't help but put in there. Thanks for reviewing and I hope you keep up with the story as it progresses!**

 **MorganStarShinr-Thank you for reviewing! I'm glad you found this story and enjoy it. Hope you stick with us through the rest of it!**

 **Thanks to all the viewers out there! We have reached an amazing 28,500 views on the story which is amazing to me. I am finding myself devoting more and more time to the story as it goes on!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

 **Underworld-Lily Potter**

She kept running, glancing behind her every so often to ensure she was not being pursued. Occasionally Hades would notice her presence in his realm and sent monsters to kill or capture her, but that didn't worry her nearly as much as the idea of her husband trying to find her or have her captured. At least if Hades' minions did the capturing she would die. From her husband, she could only expect rape, humiliation, torture, and a long, slow existence of such. Finally, upon reaching Elysium, she collapsed. Breathing deep and slowly, she slowly regained her breath. Funny how she had spent all that time learning to handle knives and powerful magics, and had never spent time building her endurance.

Standing up slowly, Lily continued onwards into Elysium. There he was, sitting next to a fountain, eating a pulled pork sandwich messily. "Lily!" James exclaimed, rushing towards her and enveloping her in a bone-crushing hug.

"James, we have to go, now. I've only got one shot at bringing you back. Our son needs our help. He can't hope to defeat Tartarus on his own." Lily replied, taking James by the hand and walking to the exit. James nodded, having expected this moment to arrive for a long time. He had been enjoying his existence in the underworld as expected from him, but in secret he had been training. At Hogwarts, he had been quick and smart. Before his death, he had been an Auror and worked with the unspeakables. He had been quick, intelligent, and very powerful. Now, undead and in a godlike state of being thanks to a spell from Lily long ago, his power had significantly increased. He had spent several centuries in the underworld learning from books she had procured for him by her last few visits. For all his patience and power and intelligence, he couldn't help the small spark of excitement he felt upon getting back to Earth and seeing his son.

They had almost made it through the gates of Hades' palace when they both froze upon hearing a huge clamor. After exiting the gates and glancing around, it became apparent that an attack was occurring. Hades' army was mobilizing and in the distance, several thousands of monsters could be seen coming up from the entrance to Tartarus. The sheer amount of monsters was terrifying, but what scared them most was the man who climbed out and looked straight at them and smiled. It was Caliban. He was with three generals astride mighty black horses. The generals pointed at them after a few words from Caliban, and an entire group of monsters departed the main group and sprang towards them. As they turned and ran away, they heard Caliban's clear and cold laughter.

Lily began to throw countless deterrent spells over her shoulder to confuse or slow down the beasts giving chase to them, while James started throwing several advanced curses behind them at random. None of it did any good, so instead of wasting their power on it, they simply ran faster. The exit to earth wasn't too far away from Hades' palace, but as soon as it came within sight, James felt a presence behind him. He dodged without thinking, pulling Lily down with him. An enormous hell hound jumped over him, immediately followed by two more. Jumping up and immediately firing an advanced fire spell at them, James was pleased to see one of the hounds catch fire and burn from the inside out, immediately followed by the other two as Lily found her feet and defended them with four rapidly cast curses. They had just begun to celebrate and were walking to the exit when they heard a slow, sarcastic clapping noise behind them.

Turning around slowly, they found Caliban standing there with a smirk on his face. They both shared a look. They may be powerful together, but this was one foe they had no confidence in beating. "Together this time?" James asked.

"Yes, my love." Lily replied. Without wasting a single moment, they joined hands, using an old spell simultaneously to send all of James' books Lily procured for him, and a personal letter written by both of them over time, to the special place Lily had prepared at Hogwarts. When that was done they kissed, holding each other tightly as Caliban's spell washed over them both. They both collapsed, Caliban standing over them and laughing at their sentimentality. Love was truly the end of all things, to those foolish enough to feel it….

 **Department of Mysteries-Harry Potter**

Harry smirked as Snape picked himself up from the floor yet again. For the past month, they had trained to work as a team. That time spent together taught Harry multiple things. First, he was more powerful than Snape. Second, he was becoming smarter than Snape, although not cleverer. Third, Severus Snape could actually be funny at times. Fourthly, it _was_ possible for two old enemies to move on and become friends. This particular achievement had come entirely by accident however, and still didn't prevent Snape from being an unholy bastard most of the time.

It had happened during occlumency training, the day immediately after Snape had been revealed as a team member. He was supposed to train with Harry, and had arrogantly legilimized him without pause. Harry had allowed him into his mind, lulled him into a state of confidence, and attacked back whilst simultaneously raising his own mind shields and throwing Snape out. Snape had been too disoriented to defend himself. Thus, Harry saw everything. Immediately following seeing every moment of Snape's life, three things happened. First, Harry had been inevitably and uncontrollably angry. He immediately subjected Snape to the torture curse until Horace put an end to it. Second, he had screamed and yelled and been sent home for the week to cope and regroup. Thirdly, he had shared it all with Ginny through their bond. They had found they could not only feel each other through the bond, but could also send thoughts and emotions to one another, as well as share power. All of this had been only by touching previously, but it could now all be done no matter the distance.

After showing Ginny everything he had seen in Snape's mind, she had cuddled with him in his rooms, and comforted him. She had shown him how he really had no right to be angry over it, and that he needed to be a better person than Snape had been, and not take out past frustrations on Snape as he had done to Harry. Of course, it helped that they had spent the entire night kissing, cuddling, and including a little heavy petting, Harry thought. Through the bond, they had slowly experienced each other's lives. Harry had comforted Ginny over her bad experiences with the chamber, and Ginny had helped Harry get over his relative's abuse. The memories still caught him unawares at times, but overall, he was over the experiences. Going through those things in their minds together had brought them much closer, bringing them much more in love than any other couple their age they had ever met. Despite all of this, Ginny remained untouched sexually, with the sole exception of some heavy petting on occasion. They both knew and mutually agreed that it would happen in its own time, and was not to be rushed. Something about being bonded and knowing each other so well eliminated the huge lust most teenagers experienced. They knew they loved one another entirely, and trusted each other completely. They both wanted each other badly, but saw no need to rush it so when it did happen, it would be perfect.

Harry went to Snape in the training room the following week, and they had surprised one another. Both had been ready to apologize to the other, and both had mutually agreed to a fresh start. After training for the day, they had met in Harry's new home as a show of trust on his part. They had talked and drank wine long into the night, and had come to understand one another more thoroughly. The subsequent training and team building lessons had resulted in all of them becoming close friends. That didn't mean their personalities had changed however. Snape was still a bastard, Ginny still had her fiery temper, and Harry still overreacted on occasion, but they had all learned to deal with and help one another when those times arose. Horace was particularly happy with them and although he didn't say as much, it showed in the way that he only required them to train once a week now.

Harry was perfectly happy with having the Weasley family in his home, and loved the family atmosphere when he came into his home now. The only issue he had was Molly Weasley. He felt like she _knew_ Ginny would sneak into his room and _knew_ they were closer together than they portrayed in public. How she would know was beyond him. The day after she agreed to date him, he had asked Arthur and Molly permission, which they had granted with smiles on both sides. Between work, sneaking around with Ginny, and having a happy time with her family, Harry had been distracted to say the least, but he _had_ noticed the occasional glances Molly Weasley sent his way when she thought he wasn't watching. It was like she was waiting for something to happen, something big, and it was driving Harry absolutely insane trying to figure out if she was trying to catch them being intimate, or if she already thought they had been. It was amusing to Ginny that Harry could face down Dark wizards with no issue, but was terrified of being caught by her parents being in bed together, despite being Master of the Manor and having no way of being caught if he truly didn't wish to. Besides, it was fun for her to watch Harry worry about something small, and waiting on him to realize they were both classed as legal adults now thanks to their jobs.

The last thing weighing on Harry's mind was Hogwarts. He was soon to take over control of the school, as all of the changes he had requested had finally come through. The changes he had enacted were numerous. First, Dumbledore had been removed from the school. Apparently something happened to the old man, and he had become weak, sick, and confused, so he had been removed to St. Mungo's. Next, Harry had done an appraisal of the school structure and found it lacking. Using his memories from the Founders, he had completely renovated the castle inside and out. Each classroom had new equipment, new student equipment, new facilities, new storage areas that were enchanted to help keep things clean and good, and the outside had been strengthened and fortified with black obsidian in place of the grey stone the Founders had used previously. Obsidian was mostly magic-resistant, and was stronger than stone. It also was lined with crystals that he and the teachers had charged with their own magic to help power the wards on the castle. Redoing the wards on the castle had taken Harry the entire week to do as the rest of the staff saw to the inner renovations.

He had also dismissed Binns, and hired on several new teachers, including a goblin, elf, centaur, and a human history professor to teach History of Magic. He had revised the entire syllabus, and had made classes much more challenging and fun. Hogwarts was now in third place amongst all three schools in every class except Potions and Charms. This was due to a certain lax in the syllabus, rather than the fault of teachers. The professor pay was now changed to a monthly rate based on class grades, rather than a weekly flat pay. He had also added several classes to the roster. Defense against the dark arts class was completely removed. Now, there was Defensive Magic class along with a class on Healing, Dark Magic, Dark charms, Blood Magic, Rituals, and Spell creation. Snape became the new Dark Magic professor, and he hired new professors to fill every position. Despite the man's perfection of potions, dueling was his passion and he would teach it far better. Harry also opened tournaments, open to every year, all the way from Transfiguration and Charms tournaments, to Dueling tournaments and the ever-present Quidditch cup tournament.

The "Academic Tournaments" as Harry had dubbed the Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, and Misc. tournament, would see that the winning student won a grand prize of 1,000 galleons. The winner of the dueling tournament, which was no holds barred with the exception of no spells or curses that would kill, would see the winner receiving a grand prize of 1,000 galleons plus extra privileges according to the rank they placed in at starting at 10th place and up. Harry had decided that with the extra space at the castle, a few of them had turned into student suites to be earned through the tournament. One suite, reserved for himself, had also been set up. He had moved everything from the Headmaster suites and had offered that area to Professor McGonagall.

She was to be Deputy Headmistress and deal with day-to-day happenings. Harry's suite was entered through a door in his office, one which only he and Ginny could open, and it was huge enough to fit both of them, even including a spare bedroom. All of this was accomplished by now, and was ready for the new school year to start. The ministry, with the exception of Madam Marshbanks, had just found out about him being the High Lord of Hogwarts, about a week ago in fact. He had expected a fuss, but thanks to the Madam, his ascent to the role went uncontested and was even praised to an extent. He knew most people would likely reserve judgement until he had either proven or disproven himself. He was happy for it, since all that meant was that there was one less worry on his back.

To his extreme happiness, he had also found out that a certain newly healed old man, from Moody himself no less, was now in charge of the Auror battalion he had requested to protect the castle. Fudge had been removed as Minister, due to a vote of no confidence. In Scrimgeour, the new minister's haste to prove himself an asset as Minister to the public, he had sent an entirety of two battalions to protect the ancient school. Harry had Moody set one battalion guarding the gates at all times, and another to patrol the school and the grounds at all times as well. All of these changes made Harry happy, and no longer being forced to attend classes helped him figure out how to handle his new job as well.

He had met with the new minister on quite a few occasions, and as a former Head Auror, Scrimgeour approved of all of his changes. They had actually formed a slight friendship despite his early misgivings about politicians. In turn, it had helped in the way that he was given carte' blanche to proceed as he would with the school, but also more funding and permissions to the Department of Mysteries. Horace and Marcus had been very happy with him after that, and had since promoted him to a third-tier operative, right below them, and code-named him Savage, due to the way he fought. Ginny, on the other hand, had been promoted to a second-tier, and codenamed Red, due to her hair. This, coupled with being recognized as High Lord of Hogwarts, assisted him in gaining praise and recognition, along with respect, in the department's operative ranks.

"SAVAGE!" Thundered Ginny loudly just as Harry was blown backwards and onto his back after two flips, effectively knocking him out of his musings. He shook his head and took Snape's offered hand as he helped him back to his feet.

"Have a nice rest there, Savage? I hope you were thinking long and hard about how to not stand there and reminisce in the middle of a fight. Had that been a real battle, you'd likely be dead right now." Horace drawled in a sarcastic voice. "Perhaps you'll be kind enough to join us now in your team room. We have a mission for your team, which, unfortunately for them, means the team leader must be present to plan for the mission his team will be going on."

"Sorry Horace, it's been a rough week, it won't happen again." Harry replied. Horace nodded and Harry followed him back to the team room, his team in tow. They reached the team room quickly and found Marcus already standing in front of their chalk board. They had all just barely sat down when Marcus began speaking quickly and efficiently, pointing to various things on the board as he spoke.

"Now that you are all here, we will begin. Team 5 was out last week on a separate intelligence mission for Horace and I. They discovered a sect of death eaters and had followed them, gathering plenty of intelligence from them as they did so. The problem is, these are two low-level death eaters. They only had so much intelligence to offer. The only thing of real importance we learned from them, was the base of operations they stayed at, and the person they reported to. They report to none other than Rudolphus Lestrange. Now, Rudolphus is dangerous and very intelligent, but he does have something we can exploit without having to capture him yet. If we were to capture one of the inner circle, Voldemort would notice immediately and we would like to keep it a surprise that we are involved already for a while longer. Rudolphus uses a woman and man there to relay orders to the lower echelon of death eaters residing there. The man and woman do not live there, but rather leave every night. Intelligence suggests that the couple is married and that Rudolphus has sex frequently with the woman, and the man is a cousin of his. These two death eaters going missing will tip off Rudolphus to foul play, but it would be some time before he admits defeat and tells his master. These two will have more information that we need and will be immensely helpful." Marcus paused to breathe for a moment before continuing. "Your objective is to follow the man and woman. Learn all you can. Gather the intelligence, and find out where they stay at night. If they stay alone, take them as prisoners, and if not, come back here for help and we will send the appropriate number of teams needed to do so. I want them alive if at all possible, but I expect you to kill them should they prove too difficult to follow or capture and wound a teammate. Remember, use what level of force they use. No heroics. This couple could help, yes, but this isn't a death or success mission. Should it become necessary to pull back to save your team, do so and we will find another way to get at them. You will begin by staking out the hideout after being shown pictures of them. Do you understand your mission?"

"Yes sir." Harry replied after glancing at his team to ensure they had no questions about it. Horace and Marcus shared a knowing tight smile at the leadership training coming through. "When will we start?"

"You will begin at exactly 0300 tomorrow. Go home, rest, and meet back here first thing." Horace answered. Harry nodded and motioned to his team. They all got to their feet and left the room. Snape leaned down to murmur in their ears, "Get some sleep, and I will see you both tomorrow." before disapparating. Ginny and Harry looked at one another and Ginny grinned.

"Is it just me, or is Snape becoming downright nice to us both now?" she asked with a teasing tone to her voice.

"I suppose we just know one another better now." Harry shrugged. He put his arms around Ginny's waist and apparated them home. As they appeared in the foyer of the empty house, the whole family having gone shopping for school and not expecting them until later, Ginny kissed him deeply.

"I know that we are all friends now. I was just teasing. I know you, Harry Potter. Don't you dare start brooding and worrying on me tonight. Tonight, I want to hold and kiss you and be held and kissed senseless by you in return." Ginny said as she pulled him into his Master Suite. Leaning up on the tip of her toes she kissed his neck and whispered in his ear, "Besides, if you make sure we live through our mission, I'll have to find some _special_ way to thank my amazing team leader."

Harry shivered as they both took off their robes, revealing his white t-shirt and blue jeans and her pink tank top and black tights, fell onto the bed, and began kissing each other deeply. As Harry kissed down her neck and begin running his hands over the shape of her ass through her tights, he pulled back and looked deep into her chocolate brown eyes. "I love you, Ginevra Weasley." He said in a husky voice.

"I love you too, Harry Potter." Ginny replied, moaning as he attacked her neck again in a frenzy.

In another room, Molly Weasley began rolling up the extendable ear she had been using, smiling widely to herself. Making sure to keep quiet, she went back to the rooms she and Arthur used and requested a cup of tea from the house elves while she waited on her husband's return with the other children. _"They really do make a wonderful couple."_ Molly mused to herself as she drank her tea in silence….

 **Underworld-Tartarus**

Tartarus walked into Hades palace, power thrumming throughout his body as he transferred control of the realm to Caliban. Originally his son would take this place, but his son had convinced it would be best if he stayed in their own realm to maintain control. Besides, he rewarded his helpers, and Caliban had led the generals and monsters in gaining control of the Underworld. With Hades on the run and his human army mustering in the underworld after letting his monsters free to roam to the surface and cause chaos and confusion, Tartarus had never felt so powerful and unstoppable in many centuries as he did now.

After transferring the control to Caliban, he turned to look at the bottom of the throne. Four people lay chained there. Lily and James Potter, one Persephone, and one Sirius Black. Leaving the stunningly beautiful Persephone chained to the throne as a gift for Caliban, Tartarus took Lily, James, and Sirius to his own bedchambers. He tied Sirius and James next to one another facing the bed, and stripped Lily before tying her to the bed. He undressed himself, and used the counterspell to awaken all three of his guests. After the shock wore off of all three at seeing one another again, the two men began struggling against their bonds futilely as he climbed atop Lily. As he sank inside of her, relishing the look of despair on her face as she realized the beating, rape and humiliation to come in front of her close friend and husband, he cackled internally. Unable to contain it, he began laughing loudly and uncontrollably as his fist connected with her stomach and he thought, _"I'm coming for you little Harry, and you'll bow down to me or lose everyone you love to me."_ …..

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Well, I am back again guys, finally. I've been trying to write this chapter for a long time now. I've just been reunited with a laptop, and managed to sit down and type it out. Please forgive a few things. One, that it took so long to write up for you guys. Two, that this chapter is longer than usual due to my long absence. Three, that I skipped through a month's time period, but that was necessary both to get to a few action sequences and to explain why certain things were happening, such as Severus and Harry forming a friendship and the changes at Hogwarts before we actually see them. Finally, for not answering reviews in this chapter. I have been gone a while and it is next to impossible to catch up with reviews I have received in that time period. I promise that reviews for this chapter will be answered in the next one as usual.**

 **That said, I hope everyone liked this chapter and is looking forward to everything this chapter hinted at in the next one! Thank you all for sticking with this story, and please read and review as always! Your reviews are always appreciated and given appreciation and usually an answer as well. The next chapter will be out as soon as possible so keep an eye out. When this story is finished, I have three more stories I have worked on in my head, so let me know what you guys think I should do next. The three stories planned are an Original Character story in the world of Eragon, a Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings crossover, and a Harry Potter/Game of Thrones crossover. Let me know what you think girls and guys! Always happy for suggestions.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen:**

 **Phoenix Manor-Harry Potter**

Harry woke up at 2:00 the next morning when his alarm went off. Shaking Ginny awake, he left the warm covers and shivered in the chilly early morning air. He stepped into the bathroom, quickly showered and dressed in his combat work robes with a black wool long sleeve, black sweatpants, and a dragonhide vest underneath. As he stepped out and noticed Ginny was already gone from the rooms, he located the vest he bought for her and sent it to her rooms with a small pop before heading down to the dining area. As he sat down, he noticed Arthur and Molly coming into the room behind him followed by the others. The whole house knew they had a mission to perform today. They didn't know what the mission was, but they knew it was dangerous, and their first combat mission.

Ginny walked in about ten minutes later as a very early breakfast was served by the house elves. Everyone quietly dug in to the delicious meal. As the time struck ten before three, Harry and Ginny rose from their places. Everyone started giving hugs and well wishes, finishing up just as Severus Snape appeared in the welcoming room. The Manor wards alerted Harry, and he and Ginny met up with Severus before they all apparated into the department team room. As they arrived, Marcus strode forward to greet them with Horace on his heels. Horace proceeded to show them all a file that included a picture of the place they were to stake out, and the people they were to follow and attempt to capture. Ten minutes later, with the shrunken file laid on Harry's desk in their team room and sealed magically, they apparated to Diagon Alley with their hoods up.

The air was very chilly as they arrived, making no noise at all. They quickly and quietly moved into Knockturn Alley where the building was supposed to be. Even at this ridiculous hour, many sketchy looking individuals were roaming the streets already. Most didn't even glance their way twice. Quickly finding the building, Harry ordered Severus to hang out on the bridge above them disillusioned, as Harry and Ginny both took up positions in separate culverts they found in the wall. Harry and Ginny both sat down, cloak around them for warmth, and opened their mind link further to speak as they waited and watched.

After waiting for a solid two hours with no one noticing anything or anyone out of the ordinary, Harry ordered Ginny and Severus to change positions. About an hour later, he changed positions with Ginny himself. After four total hours of watching, Snape and Harry traded places once more. After becoming severely irritated with the lack of action, Harry had to calm himself using his mind techniques and started playing a "what if" game in his mind concerning all the possible scenarios and outcomes of this mission. To his surprise, thinking this way not only calmed him and allowed him to be better prepared, but also made him think of things he should have done differently from the start. For instance, although it was too late to change plans in that moment, he should have Snape in a better position to either help or receive help, rather than sending him up to the top alone. He was broken from his musings immediately when a message spell hit him. _"Heading your way. Both of them. They have two people following them so hold back."_ Snape's voice said in his mind. He alerted Ginny through their link, stood and shook off his tiredness quietly.

It was only a moment before he saw them. The man and woman were in front, leading the two other death eaters behind them. Whether they were recruits or already death eaters he did not know, but considering the masks there was no way to tell anyway. Between the two in the back, they carried a small chest. Harry barely saw it as their cloaks covered it mostly, and it made him very curious as the why they'd send a four-person guard and try to hide the chest from anyone watching. Wondering what was in the chest, Harry ordered his team to stay in position, while casting a parsel-invisibility spell on himself before creeping forward quickly and quietly. He came up behind the two death eaters in the back just as they all entered the building. Harry made to follow them to see if he could hear or see anything interesting inside while invisible, but immediately bounced off of stone where an open door had been earlier.

Frowning and rubbing his chin where it had hit the stone, Harry cast a normal revelation charm. When nothing happened, he scowled. He began running ward detection tests. Finding numerous wards, but none that detects detection spells, he began running a whole list of detection charms. After casting the final one, his scowl deepened and he growled under his breath. He absolutely could not find any reason why the door would just disappear and not let him through. He relayed what happened to his team, and faded back to his original position to await them coming out. It took a few hours, but after two-three hours passed by, the woman left alone. As she left, she stopped by a shop just next door. Harry began calculating his options.

If he let the woman go in favor of the cousin, he might screw everything up if the cousin knew nothing. On the other hand, if the woman was to meet someone and come back, the cousin would know something was wrong and would likely call for help. He could order Ginny or Snape after the woman, but if they were caught and outnumbered, or if she disapparated and they couldn't follow, it would be pointless. As Harry weighed his options, the woman exited the store. Realizing it was now or never, Harry took a step forward, ready to silently stun her and give the command to apparate back to base, the man exited with one other person. Thinking quickly, Harry chose the man as his target, giving the stranger to Snape, and the woman to Ginny. As Snape came off the bridge and around the corner in front of them, and Ginny came from behind, Harry walked up to their side, pinning them into an alcove behind them. As the group of enemies realized they had three people coming toward them with wands out, it was too late. All three silent stunners hit their targets with no one the wiser in the empty alley. All three of them grabbed their targets and apparated into their team room. Ginny ran to get Marcus or Horace as Severus and Harry remained to watch over their prisoners.

Ginny returned moments later with both men in tow, along with several other operatives from Team 5. Horace had team three take all the hostages to the interrogation rooms, and he followed them out. Marcus sat down at the team 3 meeting table they had sat at that morning, and proceeded to debrief them on their mission. After all questions had been answered and recorded, he congratulated them on a job well done. In light of achieving their first mission without a hitch, they invited Severus over for a celebration dinner the next evening. He accepted, though with a slight unease in his eyes at the idea. Harry and Ginny knew he had never really had true friends, and was likely feeling self-conscious or as if they would suddenly go back to hating him. Their friendship was slowly building, and it would take time and patience to get through both their past, and Harry and Severus' emotional walls.

After being checked out by the medics, all three of them disapparated to their respective homes. Harry and Ginny showed themselves to the others, let them know they were okay, and left for the bedrooms. It was only five in the afternoon, but they were exhausted after the adrenaline wore off and being up so early. The elder Weasley's followed them to ensure they got to bed okay, and at Ginny's room, Ginny turned to go in only to be stopped by Harry. Harry had feared for her during the whole mission, and even with everything going off without a hitch or even a fight, he was scared something would happen to her. After talking with Severus about things he witnessed as a death eater such as rape, murder, kidnap and more, Harry worried what would happen should Ginny ever be captured. Harry realized during today's mission that they needed each other, and while it wasn't normal for someone their age to share a bed at home, it wasn't normal to be soul-bonded either.

Taking her hand in his, he led them all down to his rooms and stepped inside. After only removing his and her shoes, he laid under the covers, cuddling her close to him. Arthur, after a moment of confusion, moved forward to put a stop to it. He stopped when Molly put a hand on his arm. She led them out of the room quietly, and shut the door behind them before turning to her husband.

"They are only sleeping Arthur. We can discuss this with them tomorrow but you know as well as I do that Harry is a gentleman. He won't force himself on her. If anything happens, they will be in mutual agreement. I can't say I am happy with her sharing a bed with a man already, but at least I know that it is a man that will take care of her. Besides, I think she will have more trouble wearing his resolve down to be sexual than the other way around…. unlike someone else I know who didn't share the same restraint." Molly said with a light laugh at the blush that appeared on Arthur's face. He nodded his head. He really did like Harry, and was thrilled that he was with Ginny, but she was his little girl and it was hard not to be upset that she was grown up now. At least, as his wife said, Harry would care for her.

"Care to go to our room and remind me of why we have so many children?" Molly whispered in his ear before taking his hand and leading him to their room. As he walked, he plotted an embarrassing prank on the two sleeping teens in Harry's room. After all, it wouldn't be fair to let them completely off the hook would it?

 **Underworld-Tartarus**

" _One day. That's all its been on the surface, is one day."_ Lily thought to herself. It had been almost a year down in the underworld, where time passed more quickly. She was chained to her husband/master's bed with a collar around her neck. She was fully naked, and was allowed no luxuries such as clothing, jewelry, makeup, or even to stand. The only time she wasn't chained to a bed, she was either being pawed at and touched by guards who took her to the bathroom, or being ruthlessly beaten and fucked by Tartarus, his guards, Caliban, or anyone who got bored really. James and Sirius were only taken down from the wall after a week of watching her be raped and beaten, and they were sent to the work fields. At least they were together. She was stuck here, alone and abused.

Her "husband" had relished abusing her in front of James and Sirius, and further enjoyed their mutual outrage and distress when he let others do so as well. To be honest, she had actually grown numb and bored halfway through it. His numerous beatings and rapes had been so painful and frequent in the past she had become almost used to them. After a year though, her hope was fading. She was turning apathetic, and despondent. Depression was settling in heavily. With his army almost fully mustered, and the monster army being allowed to burst onto the surface in one more year her time, it felt as though things were spiraling out of control too quickly to grasp. A horn startled her out of her apathy for just a moment as she heard a loud clamor. " _Another battalion made it up from Tartarus to join the ever-growing army."_ Lily thought to herself helplessly. She only hoped that when Tartarus went after her son, he either hid himself very well or died quickly. Neither she nor the others could help now. James and Sirius had transcended to godhood due to Tartarus, so they would fade forever should they ever try to escape again and died in the process.

As she thought of Harry, the door banged open and she immediately cast her eyes downward in submission. Persephone was shoved inside by Caliban, and pushed down on her knees beside Lily, and chained to a bed post. Already knowing what Caliban wanted, and wanting to avoid further punishment, both women began kissing and touching each other heavily, faking moans as Caliban undressed himself. As quickly as he had begun undressing, he began dressing again at top speed as a guard popped his head in and informed Caliban that Lord Tartarus needed him immediately. Caliban left both naked girls on the floor and chained to the bed without a second thought, closing the door behind him. Persephone spat after him when he had gone.

"I thought it was bad at first, when I was forced to wed Hades. Now I know that Hades treated me with nothing but love and kindness compared with these people." Persephone said, with a tinge of longing in her voice.

"Not people. Beings." Lily said. "Even the lowest of people could never do this to other people, and if they could they definitely couldn't do it nearly as long."

"I remember you, Lily Potter." Persephone said. "You were stolen away before entering my husband's realm properly, and you were the one that was irritating him by entering the realm off and on and making him think it was Tartarus' people the whole time. I sort of found it amusing myself, and sweet. A young woman, still a child when compared to my age, sneaking in where she didn't belong to see her long lost love and trying to help her child. You see the appeal in such a story to a goddess stuck in the underworld all the time."

Lily looked at the other woman confused momentarily, before an involuntary laugh bubbled up inside her. It felt foreign to laugh, and she hadn't done so in a truly long time. She couldn't help it. It was odd to find anything funny or inspiring in this truly horrid situation, but the woman had simultaneously provided humor and hope in her over the most trivial things. Knowing the woman was surely used as badly as she, if not worse, and still had a fire in her to defy them made Lily snap out of her depression, even if only temporarily.

"You know, we will probably be killed down here and fade, Lily Potter. You have more cause than most to be happy. You've done nearly all you can to help your son, you attempted and nearly succeeded in saving your husband, and all of that my dear, is more than any of us have accomplished against this growing menace. For all his power, my husband could only just get away. I see your depression, and I see your reasoning for it. You feel it is hopeless here. You feel as though you will never know happiness again. After how long you have suffered, who can blame you? But remember this, Lily Potter, if we are to die down here, then we will die and fade, and nothing we do can prevent it. However, there is a chance, no matter how small, that we are rescued or saved. Hold onto that chance. Keep hope that it may happen. If it isn't meant to be, then what harm was there in having some hope before fading away? If it does occur, then you will not be beaten by the time your time comes. All things can be corrupted, Lily Potter. The only thing they cannot break is your hope. Therein lies the ability to save your crumbling spirit." Persephone told her. Lily's eyes brightened as she listened to the wise woman's words. The more she though it through, the more she realized that Persephone was right. As she opened her mouth to respond, Caliban came back in with four guards. He unchained Persephone, and drug her to her feet, slapping her hard before tossing her to the guards.

"Come, slut. We have business to attend to. We have a little boy to find, and a snake-faced bastard to manipulate. Maybe when we do we will return and finish our fun." Caliban said, leering at Lily in a disturbing way. They left, shutting the door behind them firmly.

"Oh Harry..." Lily muttered under her breath. If Caliban was being sent after Harry again, either he had shown up in public again, or new leads had been found. Either way, no matter how intelligent or powerful he may have become, Harry stood little chance against Caliban if he was found. Closing her eyes, she began a prayer, a whispering promise of anything should it save her Harry. When she finished, she heard the door open again to reveal Tartarus grinning down at her nude form. She raised her eyes to meet his defiantly, a spark in her eyes once more. The old Lily was still in there, and she would continue fighting until there was no fight left in her.

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Well, chapter sixteen is now finished! I'm rather proud that it got done quickly. We are drawing ever closer to the climax. Harry and his family and friends are growing closer together and understanding one another better than ever, but will that be enough?**

 **Thank you to Scrappy8 for another faithful chapter review!**

 **Loverofredheads: It does have a certain appeal for that sort of story, doesn't it? I like it myself. While I'm not sure how to incorporate Ginny in the story, I'm sure that once I've decided which of the three-story choices to begin with, I'll be able to more adequately plan for them.**

 **Nesciamema: Don't worry about Lily. As you can see from this chapter, her spirit isn't yet totally broken. As to the Harry/Ginny pairing in GOT or Eragon, those are my favorites as well, but in the Eragon one, Harry Potter isn't part of it. It'll be an almost completely original story. Thanks for continuing to be a faithful reviewer!**

 **So far this story, and my page as an author has garnered 270 followers, 105 reviews, 169 favorites, 4 communities sharing and watching, and 40,095 viewers! This is amazing and completely unbelievable to me guys! I definitely appreciate the love, suggestions, comments, and theories you guys send my way. It makes someone feel good, knowing people are willing to read what you write. I originally wrote this story for the hell of it, assuming no one would read it. To my great surprise though, here we are. The next chapter will be up, as always, as soon as I can manage.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen:**

 **Great Britain, Unknown Location-Tom Riddle**

Lord Voldemort looked out over his inner circle in interest. He had been quietly plotting for months, and now it seemed it was time to put things into motion. As he sat quietly for a moment, as he always did to ensure his followers were uncomfortable and worried before answering his questions, he reminisced on how he'd gotten this far. To his right hand stood Severus, faithful servant extraordinaire, and to his left stood Caliban. Caliban was an unknown entity to him. Yet, it was because of Caliban they had gotten this far.

Long ago, when he had freshly graduated Hogwarts, everyone expected great things from him. They expected him to become a professor, headmaster, or even the Minister of Magic. As if he had wanted anything to do with the current establishment. The current establishment catered to muggles. Muggles that had taunted, teased, and bullied him. Muggles who had caused the death of his mother. The filthy things didn't deserve to live. He knew the power they held. With the touch of a button they could annihilate an entire village of wizard-kind. They needed no such power. All they had to do was discover their existence and they would be eliminated. That must not happen. That was why he had decided long ago that only half-bloods, and purebloods needed to live. Muggleborns were a liability. Not only were they a liability, but in Slytherin's chambers he had discovered journals. Journals that showed potions experiments Slytherin had been undertaking using muggleborn blood, along with pureblood. Light magic, used by light wizards, only got weaker when mixed with muggle blood, except in very rare cases that it got a power boost. Dark magic when mixed with muggle blood, bred itself out, leaving only squibs. Light wizards did not care of course, since they believed dark magic to be purely evil.

He had listened to the pleas of dark wizards he had met whilst in Slytherin. After realizing he was only from a bastard line and being denied the Slytherin inheritance, he claimed the name anyway. It put people in their place, and forced his followers to respect him despite being half-blooded. He had heard of the very controversial changes Potter made to his beloved school regarding dark magic also. It puzzled him since he believed that it was a good change, and also because he had believed Potter to be a one-dimensional person with dark vs light views on magic. Not that it mattered of course. The brat had thwarted his plans too often and would never join him and thus, he had to die.

When he learned about the Ministry policies regarding Dark Magic, he wanted to rebel. Leading a rebellion required power, and knowledge, most of which he had only learned from one source, school. He proceeded to travel the world, stopping in different countries to learn the various magic, and fighting styles. He partook in rituals, duel tournaments, academic courses, and even parsel-magic unheard of in Egypt. After learning everything he could, he set to finishing his immortality. Once that was mostly set in the form of his horcruxes, he began his revolution. Once a year, he still participated in power rituals to increase his power with the blood of virgins. It was all to no avail when the ever-omniscient fool Dumbledore stopped him in every duel they partook in.

Realizing he needed more power, he began reading on various rituals and locations on power. Finding one long ago, he visited it. Finding a cave in that location and entering it, he realized that a spirit dwelled there. Making a pact with the spirit, his life and magic on the line to assist it when it required, he gained an enormous power boost. It was that very night he found the Potter family, and went to dispose of them. Regrettably, he had not realized what would happen using the curse he used. He had researched far into horcruxes, but had not cared to research the side effects, focusing on immortality instead. He had not, unfortunately for him, used the killing curse. This had been his rival, the one destined to kill him, and he thought to make a horcrux, using the child's innocence as a sacrifice. Using the sacrificial spell however, had sacrificed his body to make a living horcrux, rather than the other way around. Human horcrux's were unstable he had found, and definitely unreliable. He had not known this until he studied further upon returning to a body.

He wanted to kill Potter before, not because he hated him or because of the damned prophecy, but because that was the only way to reclaim that piece of his soul from the boy. Now though, he hated the meddling little brat. It only gave him that much more incentive. Thank god, that the brat didn't realize that he was a living piece of the dark lord's soul. A soul couldn't be detected in the mind by the person themselves, since no one could Legilimize themselves, and it also couldn't be detected by aura spells since they would detect the first whole soul before anything else. That the boy had learned Occlumency, had pleased him although he could no longer reach into the boy's mind. That also meant Dumbledore, nor anyone else, could do so either. With the power he had been given, plus his other horcruxes, his soul remained alive. As soon as he had regained his body, and former power, Caliban had approached him. Caliban, it seemed, worked for this spirit he had made the contract with. All the spirit required was for him to assist in killing its enemies, and raising a portal when the time came. Otherwise, Caliban was at his disposal as a loyal servant.

This was something he could easily work with, especially since he knew the contract stated opening the portal and killing enemies. It said nothing of staying his hand once he learned what the spirit really was. Once the portal was raised he planned to either control or kill what came out of it, or shut it down before anything did so. Then Caliban would either fully submit to his control, or die as well. Coming out of his recollection and looking around, he realized he had been reminiscing far too long. His inner circle was becoming restless and were whispering to one another. He cleared his throat and stood, walking in front of each of them before coming to a stop in front of his throne, which had been erected in the main foyer of Riddle Manor. He looked straight at the first man to his left kneeling on the ground.

"Yaxley, you had been ordered to find a way to make the Ministry mine. What progress have you made?" Voldemort asked in a light and calm tone. He knew already the man had delivered, but it was always best to keep them unsettled on whether or not they had done enough so that they always delivered their absolute best, no matter the task at hand.

"My lord, I have, with great difficulty, managed to place the Imperius curse on Pius Thicknesse. Also, each and every one of Scrimgeour's personal guards, and the assistant to the Head Auror, Kingsley Shackelbolt, has been placed under the influence as well." Yaxley replied, shaking slightly as he looked up to see if he had done well or not.

"Very good, Yaxley. I am pleased. Stand." Voldemort replied in a pleased tone of voice. Yaxley stood, and stayed in his position. "Your work these past months have borne more fruit than almost any here. One would imagine you are the very image of a good servant. Lord Voldemort rewards his favorites."

Clapping his hands together once, and muggle girl, no older than fourteen to fifteen, was brought in and pushed down in front of Yaxley. "She is yours, Yaxley. All I require in return is a vial of her virginal blood, and your continued excellent service." Voldemort said in a cold tone of voice before motioning for Yaxley to leave. He did not allow any servant but Caliban and Severus, and occasionally Bella to know what the other servants were tasked with. It kept mission secrets safe.

Yaxley smiled widely, grabbed his "prize" and bowed to his lord before exiting the room. Voldemort walked past two more inner circle members silently, knowing their tasks were nearly through with the time he had allotted. He sent them off to check the wards, along with four sent to patrol the grounds for two hours. When only three of his inner circle remained, disregarding Severus and Caliban, he came to a pause in front of them. Looking at Rudolphus first, then at Rabastan, his brother, he spoke in a cold and menacing voice.

"Rabastan, I have asked you to locate Harry Potter. Now he is located and in the open, no thanks to you. What have you for me then, to spare you my wrath? Did you find where the boy had been in hiding?" Voldemort asked him quietly, red eyes narrowed.

"My lord, I apologize deeply but despite my best efforts, the boy remained hidden until recently. I could not find his home, nor could I locate anything related to him travelling at all. All his travel is either kept secret from within the Ministry, or unknown to them. All I know of now are his movements within the Ministry he makes openly, such as meeting with the Minister." Rabastan replied, his eyes pleading not to be punished futilely.

"So, in other words, you know nothing. Tell me Rabastan, why are you still alive then? You seem to have no uses left to me, minus your skill in dueling. My inner circle should be much more than simple duelists. I want strategists, skilled and intelligent men and women, and obedient servants as my inner circle. You seem to fit none of those categories." Voldemort said dangerously, raising and training his wand on the man in front of him.

"Please, my lord! I will do better!" Rabastan was cut off as a green light struck him in the chest. It had been his second failure. Lord Voldemort only allowed for one. He turned to Bellatrix, whose black eyes did not even cloud over, nor did a single tear mar her increasing beauty as she healed from Azkaban and grew back into her former, incredibly gorgeous self. She had been a real beauty in her teen years and before Azkaban.

"Dear Bella, it seems your husband has fulfilled his usefulness. From now on, you shall warm my bed at night. Also, I know that you are very busy with Rudolphus marshalling our forces and training our recruits, but it seems that your late husband left a task unfinished. Please do locate the boy's safe house, my dear. I can't have him running into hiding every time I get close to defeating him. It does get rather tiring." Voldemort said, stroking her cheek gently, before grabbing her chin roughly and forcing her to look into his eyes. He nodded to himself, seeing nothing but adoration for him in them. Bellatrix nodded to him vigorously, eyes shining. She would not fail her lord like her failure of a husband! She would find the boy's hiding hold, and when she did it would burn…

 **Hogwarts-Harry Potter**

Harry Potter lay down in bed next to Ginny, exhausted. It had been about a month since they had arrived at the castle. It had been decided that Ginny would take her OWL and NEWT tests as well, since he simply shared his knowledge with her through their bond. This way, she assisted him as High Lady of Hogwarts, in practice, though not necessarily in name yet. She had passed with Outstandings in nearly every subject, making her mother and father extremely happy and proud. They were both tired often, as neither one of them realized how hard it was to run a school, particularly after making so many changes to it. On top of their normal duties, Ginny took it upon herself to inspect each of the teacher's classes once a month. Harry took it upon himself to speak to the prefects and the Head Boy and Head Girl of the year once a month as well, to gauge the student morale, discipline, studies, and wants and needs. Knowing each of these things allowed him to ensure the school ran smoothly, and that it only got positive feedback in the outside world.

House unity was at an all-time high, especially after Draco Malfoy was expelled. Two weeks into semester, he had been turned in for raping a first-year. Expecting to pay his way out of it once more, he was surprised when he was faced with Harry rather than McGonagall. Harry immediately expelled him and sent him packing home right away. He even made an announcement over the subject at the evening feast. With Malfoy gone, most of Slytherin house reached across boundaries and began making friends in other houses. It was heartening to see, but old prejudices still remained. Seeing this, Ginny and he had a long conversation about how to fix it and had decided on a solution. Come the next year, they would abolish the house system. Houses had been a source of pride, yes, but it was an outdated system that only promoted rivalry and hatred.

In the place of houses, each year would be bunking together. In place of the house cup, there would be a yearly prize. The prize would be a simple rights prize. The students of the winning year would confer with their prefects, who would be assigned for every year, who would take the agreement to Harry. Any prize was acceptable within reason, and would be applied to their next year. Seven Quidditch teams would be formed for each year. The year who won the quidditch tournament, would receive an extra prize for their entire year, along with a gold prize for each quidditch team member. This would keep only a healthy amount of rivalry in the schools, and would encourage students to do their best, along with each tournament that had already been announced. To head off any hatred or rivalry between years, he would also allow teachers to award large point bonuses for students that helped other students out of their year level.

All of these concerns were petty in comparison though, when one thought of the Order of the Phoenix. With Dumbledore in the hospital, his age having an adverse reaction with whatever had happened to him, McGonagall had become the new leader of the Order. She had immediately went to Harry and surrendered command to him. She felt that it was only right, since only he remained with the power level to counter Voldemort. Attacks had already occurred on several places in Greece. No one knew why Voldemort would attack Greece, or what he was using since it was clear from the victims it was not death eaters, but it was clear that the war had begun. Harry took charge, and immediately inducted Fred, George, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and the other teachers in the school. He set Fred and George to create things for the Order to use against the death eaters, Ginny as his right hand to oversee things when he was occupied elsewhere, Neville to deal with the political side of things that he didn't have the time to oversee, and Luna to begin stocking healing potions. When Neville was not studying, he met with the Minister and other various important people for Harry, and when Luna was not in classes, she was in the brand-new potions lab Harry had commissioned with the new Potions Mistress creating healing potions.

The other members had been tasked with following known death eaters to gather intelligence. Snape already had his former task, plus his job as Harry's team member in the Department of Mysteries. Tonks received a special task, courtesy of Ginny's idea. They never wanted to leave the school for a mission and be caught at said mission, therefore when they had to perform a mission Tonks would assume Ginny's form and say Harry was unwell. She would walk about the school a short while during the mission time, and go back to their rooms to swap out when they came back. This way, if someone discovered them on a mission, they would simply say it was an imposter since they were at the school the entire time. Lupin was pulled from dealing with the werewolves since he was no alpha and it was known they would only follow such a person. Instead, he had Lupin and Hermione researching new offensive and defensive spells, as well as wards, for the order to use. Ron and Moody, he set to training the membership and also recruiting and planning both attacks and defenses.

Today, they had helped interrogate the death eaters they had captured, which had proven fruitless again. Harry had wanted to rip any information directly from their minds, but Horace forbade it, giving the explanation that they may be needed later. The one good thing they had found out from the ministry, was when Kingsley informed them that Rabastan had been found dead in Knockturn Alley. That meant Rudolphus was too busy dealing with his brother's death to notice his two members had yet to report to him, but it was only a matter of time. As Harry fell asleep, he realized that it would only be a matter of time before the death eaters realized one of their bases was discovered, and abandoned it. Resolving to bring it to Horace's attention the next day, he rolled over and cuddled up with Ginny before promptly falling asleep.

 **Underworld-Tartarus**

His monsters had surfaced today, for the first time in a long time. They were now terrorizing Greece. He let them have their fun whilst he was being informed by Caliban on what was known about Merlin's heir. After discovering he was now High Lord of Hogwarts he had laughed long and hard. He had immediately shifted his monsters' attention to Scotland, as he had delightedly informed Lily as he took her repeatedly in celebration. His mood was further heightened after being informed that Voldemort would willingly go along with what he had promised him long ago, although Caliban suspected foul play on Voldemort's side. That was fine with him. Let the little ant try to kill him, and he would be able to squash the ant before it became an issue.

Lily was still rebellious, and while that bothered him slightly, it also amused him greatly. He loved watching her struggle as he took her or abused her. It also gave him an odd sort of satisfaction when he did so in front of her former husband and close friend. He was becoming bored of her though, and had decided that although she was beautiful, he could find a better one, more easily tamable, and give her as a present to one of his servants. As he prepared himself to go another round, listening to her heavily breathing beside him, there was a knock on his door. There stood Caliban, holding a chain.

"My lord Tartarus, I bring you a gift. One that will help you catch Harry Potter much more easily." Caliban said, dragging the three people in the room and shoving them on their knees. Tartarus's eyes widened in pleasure, and he smiled as he looked over at Lily and back to his new guests.

"Very good, Caliban, I am most pleased. Please see to it that our new guests have _every_ amenity we have to offer." Tartarus said, rising and immediately getting dressed. Caliban bowed and took his prisoners out of the room. Taking Lily's chain and holding it in his hand, he roughly drug her nude form along behind him. _"This will be most interesting…"_ Tartarus thought as he walked towards where his new guests would be staying, dragging a naked and horrified Lily behind him as he went…

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Things are heating up again! Next chapter we will have some department of mysteries action, as well as some Voldemort action put in as well. Tartarus will continue lining up his pieces on the board until his pawns reach Harry and wear him down. Harry will soon realize the magnitude of what he is facing, and will try to react accordingly. We will also see Harry start to put forth some of his Merlin and Founder-given power and knowledge in the next chapter, as well as see why he needed so much gold from his inheritance.**

 **Again, I find myself apologizing. I finally returned to the laptop after a couple months of being separated from it. I apologize that it took so long for me to publish this chapter. I also apologize that I haven't had the time today to name each and every reviewer as normal. I appreciate all of the reviews, they definitely made me try much harder to publish this chapter as quickly as possible. We are now just a small amount of views away from 50,000 and that is nothing short of amazing to me. I asked everyone once before to share the story, to tell their friends and family, and get me to 50,000 views, but I never expected the amount of dedication everyone showed to that purpose. What you ladies and gentlemen did in months, I expected in years. It is truly appreciated; you guys are awesome. On that note, the next chapter is almost finished, and will be up as soon as I can manage. Feel free to leave reviews with comments, questions, and things you all may want to see in the coming chapters.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen:**

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry-One Month Later-Harry Potter**

Harry rolled out of the bed in the High Lord suite at Hogwarts. Looking over, he realized three things. One, it was only 4 a.m. Two, it was foggy as hell outside. Three, Ginny had been woken up too. Horace had sent them and all call emergency mind message, telling them to get to the department as fast as possible. That only meant one thing. A regular emergency call meant they had a mission. A group call meant they had a mission with another team. An all call meant either the department was under attack, had been broken into, or an all-hands on deck mission was taking place. Personally, he was hoping the department had been broken into so it could be investigated and he could go back to sleep.

On top of all his duties as High Lord of Hogwarts and Leader of the Order of the Phoenix, though Ginny tried to help where she could in both places and a well-working hierarchy had been set up, he was now both stepping up his personal training using the room of requirement to simulate opponents, and he was trying to help cure Dumbledore. For all his knowledge, and all his power, he did not know what was suddenly ailing the older man so harshly. While he was not on the best of terms with the man, Harry was a forgiving soul and this was his family. He was also a leader of the light, a beacon of hope, and with him out of the picture some people were losing morale on their side. Should he die, morale would hit an all-time low.

His exhaustion was evident as he sluggishly dressed, and by the dark rings under his eyes. Ginny wasn't too far off, since her own personal time was used to train both with the order, and in the room of requirement. She only used three opponents at once, as opposed to Harry's ten, but she was still better trained than most of the order, though none of them knew it. Her morale was dropping too, though this was because she was used to being around her family and although she loved Harry dearly, she missed her parents. She only had time to see them at Order meetings at the moment, and that wasn't enough. Their constant state of exhaustion also ended with them snapping at each often, which had an adverse effect on their relationship. Harry and Ginny both knew they needed to take some time off, but neither of them were able to do so with everything going on.

Their relationship had gotten both better and worse, but the better aspects of it happened in ways that made him feel like it was making everything worse overall. True to her word, the day after their first mission ever for the department, Ginny had surprised him sexually. He had woken up to her head between his legs bobbing up and down, sending waves of pleasure through his body. He had happily replied in kind that evening by slowly stripping her naked and going down on her. While both of them were happy with that and had not gone on to any form of actual sex, that had been a while ago. Recently, that had only reoccurred three times, and while several nights were spent cuddling and kissing, even more nights were spent facing opposite directions, angry and exhausted.

Once they were both dressed, they apparated into the department, immediately coming upon Snape who informed them that Rudolphus was going to have the headquarters they had discovered emptied. When they had made their way over to Horace and taken a seat along with the other teams, Horace began speaking.

"So, it seems that we have had our interference finally discovered. The bastards are clearing out now, so we need to get them while they aren't expecting us! Savage, of team 3, and Gillian of team 1, will be in charge overall of this mission. Anyone with questions, or concerns will bring it to either of them. If anyone should happen to ignore or disregard them and their orders, they had better be scarce before I catch up with them." Horace said sternly. "We need prisoners, as many as we can get, but defend yourselves! If the only way to rid yourself of an opponent is kill them, then kill them. Don't hesitate. We move in, get in positions, and you will wait for the signal before using ward destruction spells on the building. When the wards are down, you will blast the front of the building down before moving in to capture, and kill the inhabitants, and search the property for anything we may use as evidence or otherwise. Now, move out people! Let's get this shit moving!"

Harry met up with Gillian, leader of team 1. He had met up with her several times previously. She was a ruthless fighter, as well as a very intelligent woman. Unlike Harry though, she had made this job her entire life. Tiredly, he passed out the coordinates, ignoring Horace and Marcus's concerned glances, and glanced over which teams were under his command, and which under Gillian's. Everyone apparated out at once. When they arrived, Harry realized at once that they _were_ in fact expected. Death eaters were all over the scene, and the teams were being overpowered very quickly. Immediately, Harry sent a message to Horace and Marcus. He was sure Gillian had already done so but he wanted to be sure.

His mind immediately cleared and he began shouting orders, getting his people into positions. Once they were in position, he checked on Ginny and Snape. He had established already that Ginny would take one team, and Snape another, leaving him to only have to watch over three groups at once. He had all of his teams begin a battalion action they had all learned. Two of the five teams raised a one-way magical shield. One team began transfiguring boulders used to block unforgivable, and the last two teams began firing stunners along with ropes and the occasional killing curse through the shield at the death eaters. Harry conserved his strength, and made sure Gillian's teams were fine. They had a small amount of men down, but were going strong. After gathering his strength, he cast a fully powered de-warding spell he had learned from the Founders, immediately followed by the Hammer of God spell he had learned from Merlin's time, once upon a time used for leveling building during construction.

The effect was immediate. The wards dropped, immediately followed by the front of the building being blown into bits. Some death eaters died from the explosion, some from the stone shards flying about, and the rest lost their footing. Harry and Gillian both immediately ordered all teams forward, and they proceeded to stun and bind the surviving death eaters. Harry ordered Ginny to remain outside on guard with the teams he had given her and Severus, which immediately angered her but she did as she was ordered. Snape, he ordered inside along with one of Gillian's teams to assist in finding dangerous and illegal artifacts. Gillian, Harry, and the remaining teams rushed inside to capture or kill the remaining enemies within.

Harry ducked down as he entered the door, narrowly avoiding a killing curse. He took up position by the wall next to the hallway the death eaters had crowded into and blocked off, motioning to his team to do the same on opposite sides of the entryway to the hall. Harry used his wand to cast a shield while simultaneously using his left hand to shoot off a reductor spell at the ceiling above the death eaters. The ceiling caved on top of them, knocking them unconscious and killing one. The rest were bound and sent back with the other prisoners who were being portkeyed with manacles to the department where Horace and Marcus were funneling them into the cells. Continuing down the hallway, they came upon an entire squad of death eaters fleeing down the stairs to get outside away from the apparition wards.

Engaging them in battle immediately, Harry noticed two fighting without masks, identifying them as Bellatrix and Rudolphus. Both turned towards he and Gillian, sensing the most powerful in the room, as well as the ones in charge as identified by the constant orders they shouted. Rudolphus jumped at Harry, letting off a barrage of spells as he did so. Dodging each spell gracefully, Harry spun around him and used a simple tripping jinx. For all the fight training, dark spells, and intelligence in the world, sometimes simple methods worked best. Common sense was not a trend he saw often in the wizarding world. It effectively knocked Rudolphus over, and Harry stunned him without delay. As he snapped the manacles on and they glowed blue, activating the portkey and taking Rudolphus to the department, Harry was hit in the back by a spell. Thankfully it was only a blasting hex, but it still blew his right shoulder out of place.

Spinning around and gaining his feet simultaneously, he looked up to see Bellatrix standing over Gillian's limp form, her hood gone revealing a pretty blond woman with a scar on her right cheek, advancing on him quickly. Harry stood straight and began casting an entire plethora of nasty curses at her, all of which she dodges or blocked, laughing maniacally. It was only as she cast back at him, did Harry realize his hood had been severed by one of her return spells. Dodging one of her many spells caused it to fall off, the enchantments on it broken due to the damage it had taken. Harry took advantage of Bellatrix's eyes widening in shock and her momentary lull in casting to return fire, using many of the curses he had learned thanks to his Slytherin heritage. Realizing that only so many of them were blockable after receiving a nasty gash on her cheek, Bellatrix began spinning around and dodging as well.

The deadly dance they were engaged in continued until Harry finally got tired of it. He overpowered a shield breaker curse, followed by a powerful cutting curse and stunning spell. He watched her eyes go wide in surprise once more as her shield was blown away, and the cutting curse took her wand hand off at the wrist in a spray of blood, immediately followed by being knocked out due to the stunner. Harry ran over and snapped her wand with his foot. Resisting the temptation to kick her, knowing what she would get in interrogation, Harry sent her back with the other prisoners and looked around. While he had been locked in a duel with her, the other teams had secured the other death eaters and were now moving the prisoners and healing or moving the wounded and dead. Several teams were assisting Snape in carrying out various objects contained in magical spheres.

After running over to check Gillian, and reviving her after healing her various, thankfully minor, wounds, Harry helped with carrying stuff out. Ginny refused to speak to him in his mind unless he relayed an order, so he busied himself with everything else he had to do so it wouldn't affect him as badly. It was as he was downstairs that he heard a boom outside, accompanied by the building shaking.

 _"HARRY!"_ Ginny screamed in his mind.

 _"What is it Gin, whats wrong?"_ Harry asked her in a panicked tone. He ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. As he made it outside, the sight that met him chilled him to the bone.

"Nice of you to join us, Potter." Lord Voldemort said as he stood there with at least fifty death eaters surrounding him. Bodies were strewn up and down the alley, his coworkers, and right in front of him was Ginny's body, hood and robes severed, and bleeding heavily. "I heard one of my bases were under attack, I should've known you and your whore were involved."

"You should leave, Tom, the aurors are on their way." Harry said, channeling Dumbledore's words from their last meeting. Voldemort shook his head, grinning evilly as he gestured to his followers. They fanned out, wands facing him, ready to cast at their lord's command.

"They won't make it halfway down the alley before you are dead and we are gone. I'm sorry Harry, my boy, but you see why I must make this quick." Voldemort replied, signaling his followers. Meanwhile, Harry had been having his remaining teams silently leave, after surreptitiously lowering the wards. He knew they could not win this fight, and Ginny was bleeding too badly for him to waste much time. Snape, however, stubbornly remained behind, mask still on. He stood right beside Harry, his eyes on Ginny's form. He remembered the last time he saw a redhead dying, and he would never allow another to suffer through what he did, not while there was a chance to prevent it.

As Voldemort gave the signal to fire, Harry and Snape both dove forward, under the spells. Harry cast a wide-field bone breaking charm, and grabbed Ginny's right hand, as Snape grab the left and apparated them to the department. Harry's eyes closed as he felt the apparition take place with only one thing going through his mind…

" _Ginny…"_

 **Underworld-Tartarus**

He was laughing. He was laughing uncontrollably as he proceeded to watch the two sisters simultaneously worry for each other but refuse to speak to one another. Caliban had found the location of the boy's relatives, and had kidnapped them. The man and boy, Vernon and Dudley, he had ordered to be sent to work in the fields with James and Sirius in the meantime, after making them both immortal. Lily and Petunia, recently also made immortal and young, he kept for himself. Even as a teenager, Petunia hadn't been very good looking, but he kept her around both as a refreshing change from Lily on occasion, and to serve as entertainment for him to watch how they interacted with one another.

It was obvious Lily hated Petunia, and Petunia was ashamed of herself. The reasons behind it were still unknown to him, but he didn't care. Originally, he thought hurting her sister would make Lily more agreeable, and it did, but not in the way he expected. Lily liked it when he punished her sister, and hated it simultaneously. He had thought it would hurt her and make her angry or sad, and when it didn't he became curious as to what happened between them. While curious, he really didn't waste any time to pry into the affair, assuming he would know eventually. In the meantime, he was busy with his generals planning his debut on Earth. After he and his armies rose to the surface and began causing mayhem, he would arrange a meeting with the boy.

In the meeting, he would show he had the boy's family in his custody, and threaten to kill them. Like all earthlings, his familial attachment would force him into surrender, at which point James, Sirius, Vernon, Dudley, Merlin, and the boy would be killed, and Lily and Petunia would be given to his slaves. He would take the boy's redheaded girlfriend if Caliban was to be believed, as his new wife. It was so simple. After the boy was gone, and he disposed of or enslaved the fools, Dumbledore and Voldemort, the rest of the magical earth armies would fall. After this point, it was only a very short amount of time before the rest of the muggles followed suit.

Smiling horribly to himself, he set about writing a letter to the boy, this Harry Potter. The letter was short, sweet, and to the point. After writing it, he found a raven and attached the letter to its leg, sealing it with blood magic. Sending the raven out the window of his palace room, and knowing he and his men and generals would begin their long march to the surface tomorrow, he decided to spend quality time with his two girls. After all, what was the point of having slaves if they couldn't be enjoyed? As he walked into his room and started to unbutton his shirt after closing the door, he turned around to decide which sister he'd have today. Taking Lily bothered Petunia more, and was infinitely more pleasurable, so he decided on her. After turning to look at them, he paused, eyes narrowing in anger.

The bed was empty, save for two collars chained to it, and sitting on the bed attached to no one. Two words came from his throat, two words so loud that they were heard all over Hades' Palace.

"FIND THEM!"

 **Author's Note:**

 **Here we have Chapter Eighteen! This chapter was entirely too quick and easy to write. I hope the time jump was not disorienting for everyone, since it was extremely vital to move time along for several reasons. One reason was that if I took the time to write every single detail of Harry's duties, I'd never get to the main plot. I will show his responsibilities from time to time, as well as shopping and romance and other things as well, but it will not be in every chapter. Secondly, it was important to show that over that period of time, Harry and Ginny have been having quite a falling out with each other. This is because of exhaustion, overprotectiveness on Harry's side, short-temper on Ginny's side, and a common problem with all new and some older couples, miscommunication. Finally, the time jump is used because in Tartarus, time is faster than above. For Voldemort, it takes time to build up an army, plan a rebellion, and perform political maneuvers. For Harry, he had missions going on, a school to run, political meetings to attend, and the Order to run. He had to deal with students and teachers, parents and the Ministry, important people of various places, his own money and personal problems, and a war to plan and participate in with the Order.**

 **Next chapter we will see more of the fate of Ginny, Lily, Petunia, and the others as the war is clearly fully in swing now. I left two cliff hangers, unashamedly, for you to guess who will die, and who will live, along with what will happen next in the story.**

 **Special thanks to all who took the time to follow, and/or favorite this story or me! Extra special thanks to GodOfAll, Nesciamema, Dreous44, and Scrappy 8 as well, for continuing reviews! While no reviews this chapter have posed a question or comment for me to specifically point out or reply to, there is one thing I will leave as thanks here at the end. A new reviewer, GinnyPotter6891, has joined the followers for this story and posted a review concerning chapter two. I hope to see you stay with us, faithfully reviewing as you go, and hope you make it to chapter seventeen to see this. Thank you to everyone reading, following, and reviewing! The next chapter will be up within 1-2 weeks at latest.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen:**

 **Department of Mysteries-Harry Potter**

Severus and Harry apparated into pandemonium. Operatives were running left and right, healers were taking care of patients in the infirmary, and hallway too. Horace was trying to calm several panicked team leaders who were halfway through explaining the arrival of the dark lord during the mission. Marcus was quietly talking to Gillian in the corner. Gillian spotted them and immediately pointed in their direction. Getting a healer on the way, Marcus and Gillian met them halfway. The healer conjured a stretcher and took Ginny towards the infirmary quickly, yelling for more healers as she went. Harry began to follow when Snape put a hand on his shoulder, and leaned in towards him.

"You stay and explain, I will look after her." Severus murmured in Harry's ear. Harry nodded tiredly and watched the older man take off toward the infirmary. Turning to Marcus and Gillian, he took a deep breath, but was immediately cut off by Marcus.

"Gillian said you held off Voldemort when he arrived until everyone escaped. Are you injured?" He asked, looking Harry up and down in concern.

"No. Nothing was cast until the very moment I apparated out. He had fifty death eaters with him. I wasn't about to try to fight past him _and_ them." Harry replied evenly. If he was honest with himself, he just wanted to get this over with so he could check on Ginny, and possibly take a long nap.

"Good. Gillian can tell me everything I need to know. Check up on your team, and head home for some rest. Your cover, and many others were blown today. Thankfully no reporters nor civilians were there to see it, but Voldemort won't waste time in finding a way to publicly announce you and your girlfriend as an operative here. I'll call you back when we are ready to discuss that. For the time being, you did extremely well." Marcus said, before turning abruptly back to Gillian to continue their conversation. Happy that he was free to go, Harry rushed out of the room to go check on Ginny.

When he arrived in the infirmary, he sought out Snape. He found him speaking with one of the healers quickly and quietly. When he saw Harry, he rushed over to him immediately. "She needs potions, and plenty of bed rest, but the wounds are sealed and uninfected. I can give her the potions she needs at Hogwarts. She will have to take them daily to ensure she recovers her magical reserves, the blood she lost, and to deter any physical disfigurement, though that's really just a cosmetic worry." Severus said to him.

Harry nodded without a word, and leaned over Ginny, placing a nearby tissue box on top of her. When Snape was touching it along with him, he muttered, "Portus" and they left with a small whoosh. They arrived at Hogwarts seconds later, and immediately took Ginny over and laid her on the bed, covering her uninjured bottom half after freeing it from her robes and customary tights. He was forced to remove her entire top half from any clothing to give Snape access to pour various potions onto. To preserve some of her dignity, Severus handed Harry the bandages and showed him how and where to apply them. With from her naval to her breasts covered in bandages, they finally pulled the covers up under her chin.

"Thank you." Harry said to Snape as they left the room. He offered his hand to the older man. Snape blinked in confusion for a moment before shaking his hand and nodding to him. "No matter how close we become, saving her life is always above and beyond the call of friendship. No matter what happens, I will always consider you my friend, Severus Snape."

In that moment, both Harry and Severus felt something connect them, and Severus closed his eyes. His allegiance had changed again, to Harry bloody Potter no less. Somehow, the idea was much less revolting to him than any other choice. He knew why, of course. Dumbledore had broken promises to him, freeing him from that vow. Horace had never been a friend, only a boss, though one he trusted to make decisions. That vow had faded the moment Severus chose someone to serve that he truly trusted, someone that fought for the Light and Dark, and everything worth saving. Harry Potter was that someone. Someone that Severus Snape, despite their entire history together, had come to trust completely and to a certain extent, consider one of his only friends.

Harry looked puzzled, but after thinking back to Snape's memories he had seen, he nodded in acceptance without a word. Severus shook his head to clear his mind, and left via the floo for his quarters. Harry turned and went back to the room Ginny was in, the fear he had felt since finding her injured finally fading slowly. He was coming to the realization that despite the rift between them at the moment, he loved her so much that he couldn't bear the thought of losing her. Despite their recent exhaustion and disagreements, he knew he would never love nor want another the same way. Resolved, he sat in a chair by the bed and took her hand. He would be there when she woke, and they would have much to talk about and decide.

 **Underworld-Lily Potter**

"Quickly!" Lily hissed at her sister's fat stupid husband. Why they had to bring the stupid man she would never know. Somewhere in her mind she knew it was the right thing to do, as James and Sirius said when they had escaped, but sometimes it was hard to remember why. After all, these three people were abusive to their one and only son, something Lily could never forgive.

They had been walking for days on end with no water nor any food. Persephone, James, Sirius, Lily, Petunia, Vernon, and Dudley had all been rescued together by Hades. He still refused to answer to any of them, save his wife Persephone, how he had managed to get in or out of the palace for Petunia, Persephone, and Lily. All he would say is, "I know my own realm better than any of these invaders." He had been silently leading them all to the surface since. They had avoided monsters and men alike the whole while, almost as though Hades knew exactly where they were. That was fine with all of them, but Lily was beginning to wish that they wouldn't avoid something to eat and drink soon. She was becoming dizzy and weaker by the day.

It was in that moment that Hades hissed, "Hide!" and everyone scrambled off the Road of the Dead. Hiding in thorn bushes along the side of the path, they watched as an entire battalion of men came around the bend in front of them and passed them slowly. As they finally faded from sight, they all climbed out of the bushes, grumbling to themselves.

"How much longer until we reach the surface?" Lily asked quietly.

"An hour, maybe two." Came Hades reply. He immediately began walking again.

"Why did you rescue us?" James wanted to know.

"Because if I did not, Tartarus would have more bargaining chips in his possession to use against your son." Hades said with a sigh, as if answering their questions was more effort than it actually required. Not wanting to annoy him further, Lily and James fell silent, walking hand in hand. This of course, was ruined by the fat piece of shit beside them.

"Can we take a break? Normal people do not have to walk this far all the time. Don't you people teleport or something? And what is this load of nonsense about their son being worth anything?" Vernon spat out angrily. He was angry all of two seconds before Hades turned quickly and grabbed his throat angrily, lifting the fat man into the air.

"If you want a break, muggle, I suggest you take one. I will not put up with your bullshit during this entire journey. I would not have wasted any effort saving _you_ had your wife's sister and brother-in-law not decided it was the right thing to do, Dursley. I'm not patient, and nor am I kind. If you persist in irritating me I will kill you, right thing to do or no. That boy you hate so much is worth ten times as much as you. If I were you, I would spend the rest of this walk contemplating the meaning of dead silence. Do we understand one another?" Hades hissed menacingly in Vernon's face. Vernon nodded quickly as much as he could being held by the throat, and Hades let him go, letting him fall to the ground as he turned and continued walking as though nothing had happened.

Ignoring what just occurred, and ignoring Sirius' snickering in the background, Lily continued walking. Her sister's family followed and close on an hour and a half later, they saw the path turn upwards, leading to a bright light. They began to rush forward happily when Hades' voice stopped them in their tracks.

"Wait. Look." Was all he said, but it was enough to make them halt. Their eyes widened as they noticed two columns of ten men in battle robes guarding the exit.

"How will we get passed that?" Lily asked Hades in a worried tone.

"Normally, I would simply blast through them. Seeing as they came from Tartarus' realm, there is a chance they are either just as powerful if not more so than me. We will have to settle for taking them out from different directions to keep them confused. With you, Sirius, James, Persephone, and myself at a god-like power level, we should be able to beat them. Spread out over the two hills overlooking this path. Leave your muggle family where they are. They'll be no use in the coming fight." Hades replied coldly. Persephone and Hades took the hill to the left, while Sirius, James and Lily took up residence on the right. Once the signal was given, they all began firing killing curses into the ranks of mages.

The first volley took out four, the next one managed to hit three, but by the third volley, the mages had found where the spells were coming from and had managed to put up shields and barriers. After roughly five minutes of volleying spells back and forth, the mages began focusing on only attacking Sirius, James and Lily, whilst only defending themselves from Hades and Persephone. Their reasoning became clear immediately, when Tartarus himself appeared behind Hades and Persephone, beginning a battle with them while Caliban led a group up behind Petunia, Vernon, and Dudley. Leaving no time to even issue a warning, the Dursley family was captured once more. Sharing a look, the other three decided to make a run for the exit, since that may be the only way to escape.

Working together, they conjured a stone tent, which they promptly climbed inside. The last time any of them had used a stone tent was at Hogwarts. James ad Lily had been a young couple, and had come up with the spell as a means to be out in the grounds together to make love to each other without being caught. Using another spell, James made the stone rise into the air and fly towards the exit at breakneck speed, proving that he was in fact, just as cunning and intelligent in battle as he was in pranking. Sirius laughed at the ridiculousness of what they were attempting. They heard the stone taking hits from spells and coming into contact with the mages, but it managed to hold together having been made thick by James. When he lost the strength to hold it together, he let it drop to the ground and immediately transfigured it into spikes that he sent speeding back at their attackers.

Jumping up and grabbing James' hand, Lily made a dash outside, free at last. Sirius ran behind them shooting spells off very quickly to cover their retreat. Unfortunately, between hopes and dreams, steps Fate. Just as Lily took a step out onto the surface, she felt James' grip slacken, bringing her tumbling to the ground. As she gained her feet, she looked down to see an injured James. He had a diagonal slash across his face and chest, and it seemed as though it was bleeding far more than a usual wound. Looking up, she saw Tartarus looking at her victoriously, standing over the Dursley family. When Hades and Persephone broke free from the commotion and hit the surface before disappearing together, with Hades yelling "Run, you fools!" she helped Sirius grab James before turning away, taking the last few steps to the surface, and side-apparating all of them to the first place she could think of to get help…by her father's side.

 **Hogwarts Gates**

Alastor Moody woke quickly to the sound of men banging on his door. Throwing on his robe and striding to the door, he threw it open with a scowl. "What is it?" He growled, squinting in the darkness.

"Mr. Moody, sir, we're under attack! It's-well-I'm not sure what they are sir!" Jones, the new auror recruit said in a panicked voice. That woke Moody right away. If an auror had no idea what they were up against, that told him it was very bad.

"Someone find and inform Lord Potter right away!" Moody said as he changed into battle robes and grabbed his wand.

"Yes sir!" Jones replied before running off to fulfill his task. Coming out of his quarters, Moody witnessed some form of flying beast attacking the wards at the gates. Judging by the way it spat both poison and fire, and the image it presented as a part lion and part griffon, he'd have to say it was a chimera. That was impossible, since chimeras were supposedly extinct, but the proof was right in front of him, and not just one. Several chimeras were attempting to fly in. On top of that, several of what seemed to be ice giants were attempting to smash down the gates. Just to add a little icing on the cake, it seemed as though an entire army of monsters were attempting to enter through the gates and were waiting behind the giants on the ground. Rushing off toward the battalion of aurors waiting just inside the gate in formation, he began rattling off orders.

"Somebody wake the castle, as someone is already informing Lord Potter! Someone see to the safety of the students! Everyone head for the castle and take up defensive positions inside! We can't defeat this many in the open, and the castle has even more wards on it to assist us! And for the love of god, someone please tell me the Ministry had been alerted!" Moody yelled out as they all took off towards the castle. Looking behind him, he watched as the wards came into view as a blue wall, a sign that the wards on the gate were wearing down under the assault. Thankfully, the wards on the castle were in a dome, not a wall, and couldn't just be flown over.

Entering the castle, Moody noticed aurors, teachers, and Order members along with a few select students taking positions at windows, doors, and secret entrances. At least the castle had woken up. Heading towards the Lord's tower to receive orders from Harry, Ginny, or whomever was there, he grimaced. After all this time, after all the waiting and warm-up skirmish battles, the war had finally come to the ancient school's doorstep. The war was definitely underway. It would not pleasant, nor would it be short, and he was sure many would die. The battle for the world had already been underway, but the battle for Hogwarts had just begun…

 **Author's Notes:**

 **As promised, we finally sunk into the action of the war. I got tired of reading story after story where the end battle takes place at Hogwarts. I understand why, but I thought that maybe we will use Hogwarts as something more than a last stand location. I'm not sure where this story's end battle may take place as I am only keeping two chapters ahead at the moment, it may even be at Hogwarts, but the real war is just beginning. Skirmishes in Knockturn Alley, high profile death eaters such as Bellatrix captured, romance igniting, losses suffered, and large battles taking place. Things are certainly kicking off for our heroes. Any ideas on what will happen next for Hogwarts, poor James, Sirius, and Lily, or between Harry and Ginny?**

 **Thanks for keeping up with the story so far! It's been an awesome adventure so far, and I've really enjoyed writing it. I enjoy all the reviews and favorites I receive as well, please keep them coming! The next chapter will be up soon with any luck.**

 **Now onto review replies! I apologize in advance, a great many reviews came up for last chapter, all of them good and even some great ones, but as they reviewed as a guest it is very difficult to reply to them, so I will only be replying to reviews posted by someone I can directly reply to, or reviews that have a question I can answer in general (no spoilers).**

 **ThunderSphinx-Thank you for pointing out that Rodolphus is Bellatrix' husband and not Rabastan. I thought I had put Rodolphus this entire time and your comment had me going back and realizing it had been Rabastan. I appreciate the help in pointing out that detail, but I suppose since we are so far in the story we will just assume she hated Rodolphus and found him repulsive enough to marry his brother!**

 **Maisa Potter-I love that you have joined us for the ride for this story, and am extremely heartened to hear that although you originally weren't a fan of godlike Harry stories, my story changed your view on it! It is always enjoyable to hear such things. As far as Snape and Moody goes, this chapter has a bit more Moody in it for you, and he will be showing up more frequently. He took over the mentor role in a way, so with Harry out doing his own thing and leading and running Hogwarts as well, there isn't much for Moody to mentor him in, but I promise he will still be there. As far as Snape goes, Snape did stay and cover for Harry in the alley attack, and if he had known it would happen, he would have warned Harry or Horace so their timing could be sped up to avoid it. We will also be seeing more of Snape. He is a favorite character of mine. As far as Ginny goes, I have no experience writing from a female perspective, but with as many requests for it as I have received, I may attempt to do one scene from Ginny's point of view. Perhaps when they have their talk? I'm not sure it will happen, but I will try. Hope you stay with us and enjoy the story!**

 **Lilkathra-Soon, this story will finish. Whether there will be a sequel or whether this is just a one-off story, is yet undetermined, but I will know and will be posting it very soon. This conflict will end, but I have been wanting to make a Harry Potter/LOTR or Harry Potter/Game of Thrones crossover, so I may make it a sequel to this one instead of its own story. Glad you are excited to see how it ends!**

 **Nesciamema-In one-two chapters you will be able to see how they work it out. As to Tom getting there so quickly, we will assume he has a ward on his bases that alert him to any attacks. It seems like something Tom would think of, especially since he is likely the one who would be paranoid enough to do the wards himself for each base. Thanks for reviewing!**

 **Dreous44-Thank you for the compliment! I do try to make it seem as real as possible, despite it being fiction. The invasion has begun!**

 **Sennybee98- I love how you immediately cut to the chase and asked questions pertaining to my personal favorite parts of the story! I have considered Harry and Voldemort working together, but I am not sure I want it to go that way although I agree they would both focus on the bigger threat. Perhaps I will have them helping each other both unknowingly and occasionally grudgingly aware of it. Voldemort is already planning deception when he opens the portal, although Tartarus is aware of it. As far as the money in the vaults go, you were right on the money….no pun intended. Harry will need to finance certain areas of this war, but in some cases will make money off of it without intending to do so. He does need allies, and powerful wards, but keep in mind he also needs ways to keep his friends, and more importantly his students, safe. As we proved in this chapter, Hogwarts may be able to stand up for days against an attack by Voldemort, but against this powerful army, it is only so effective defensively. Looking forward to your next review and hope you are enjoying the story!**

 **Special thanks to Scrappy8 for another faithful review!**

 **Alright folks, that's it for this chapter! I'm glad I could get this out and did not make everyone wait as long as normal! The next chapter will be hopefully coming even more quickly. I will be traveling, and with the time spent in hotels I hope to write a little more quickly. Until next chapter!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty:  
**

**Hogwarts' Lord's Tower-Harry Potter-Same Day**

Harry heard the ward alarms going off just as he had decided to take a bath and lie down while waiting for Ginny to wake. He was still exhausted and had already been through the fight in the alley that day. He was irritated for a moment as he rubbed his eyes tiredly, then he turned confused. It wasn't just one alarm, it was all of them! That shouldn't have been possible! Dragons, spells, and even the demon alarm was going off! Rushing over and changing into his battle robes, he had just decided Ginny was perfectly safe here and was walking out when he bumped into Moody at the door, who was clearly about to knock.

"What is going on?" Harry asked his grizzled old friend quietly, trying to remain calm despite the horrible sense of foreboding in his gut.

"We're under attack. I've never seen anything like it, Harry." Moody answered gravely. Harry nodded, jaw set. Though he was exhausted, the castle was his responsibility. Upon reaching the Auror barracks room within the castle, Harry pricked his thumb, smearing the blood on a panel and activating the ancient supreme wards that had safeguarded the castle for millennia. Turning to the aurors gathered there, interspersed with teachers and the Head boy and Head Girl, Harry began issuing commands to each present.

"Moody, I want all Aurors we have spread out amongst the walls and battlements, as well as atop the towers. Professor McGonagall, I want each head of house to take charge of said house immediately. All first, second, and third years are to be sealed inside the house common rooms. Fourth years may be split up among the aurors, teachers, and other such groups and important people to assist in running messages. All students fifth year and above who have affinity with healing must be sent to the hospital wing immediately. Take the remaining fifth through seventh year students and split them into groups. Each group must have a prefect, teacher, or seventh year student in charge of it. I want groups at all towers, and each staircase. Severus, we spoke about the secret passages before, I want you to take as many students as you need and place traps and security groups on each passage. I, myself, will be at the entrance hall with one group of aurors awaiting the arrival of either the ministry or enemies, whichever comes first." Harry took a deep breath as people began moving to complete their various tasks.

Walking out of the room quickly to the entrance hall, his mouth fell open upon arrival. Two portals opened, without permission, which meant he had already authorized portals from these places. Out of one, the expected ministry reinforcements came, six whole battalions of aurors and Horace along with six unspeakable teams. Out of the other came a surprise. Griphook, along with Ragnok, leader of the goblin nation, came with seven fully armored goblin warrior battalions. Harry slid to a stop in front of Ragnok and Horace.

"We are here, Lord Potter, to assist in any way possible. Where do you need us?" Horace said, breaking the awkward silence.

"I, Ragnok, Director of Gringotts Bank and Leader of the Goblin Nation, hereby offer an alliance, as well as our assistance in this coming fight." Ragnok said, stepping forward and offering a long-fingered hand to Harry.

"I, Lord Harry James Potter-Black, High Lord of Hogwarts, accept your offers of assistance and alliance." Harry said, shaking the offered hand. "We shall have a meeting after this battle to agree to terms of the alliance if you are agreeable?"

Ragnok shook his head in the affirmative. With the public formalities out of the way, Harry leaped into action, pushing his shock aside quickly. Turning partially to include Horace in the rest of the conversation, he spoke.

"I need the battalions of aurors split up and sent to Moody. He will know where to put them. The remaining half, I need here to cover the entrance. Two teams of the unspeakables would be best placed on the tower battlements, with two teams patrolling the outside of the house dormitories. One team needs to be stationed outside the hospital wing protecting it, and the remaining team needs to be here with the aurors protecting the entrance. Director Ragnok, I would be most pleased if you would consent to sending three battalions to patrol the halls, one battalion to assist in protecting the hospital wing, two battalions to assist at the entrance, and the final battalion protecting the High Lord's office."

Receiving a nod from both leaders, Harry turned and took off for the astronomy tower. He could have used numerous magical means to arrive there, being high lord, but refrained for multiple reasons. Firstly, he didn't want to mess with the wards while under attack, and secondly, he needed to ensure everyone was getting into position properly. Everything looked to be in order as he sailed past, his heightened strength and magic allowing him to move more quickly than normal. Holding out a hand, he caught the sword that appeared with a mere thought from him. Attaching the sheath to his belt as he ran, he ignored the awed looks he got from others as Godric Gryffindor's sword appeared for him.

Harry came out upon the ramparts of the Astronomy Tower, and saw the monster army for the first time, and his eyes widened in shock. Down in front of the gates, there were Dementors, Chimeras, Ice giants, Sphinxes, Dragons, Werewolves, Vampires, and even more he had never seen before. They looked as though they were being driven onward by a man in red robes from behind. As he watched, the wards began fracturing. Small bits of the wards collapsed, one at a time. Dementors, Chimera, and Dragon alike began flying through the holes in the wards, heading right at the castle. They were instantly halted by the more ancient and powerful wards that snapped into place as soon as the wards at the gate began falling.

Snapping out a command quickly, several patronii, and several curses arced out from the tower. Upon seeing it, more spells, charms, and curses began coming from the other towers. The patronii were doing an excellent job in holding off the dementors, the dragons were decently distracted as several curses struck their eyes, but the curses and spells were doing very little damage to the Chimera. Harry groaned internally. Chimera were thought to be extinct, and as such no modern spells had been developed to fend them off or get rid of them entirely. Even his knowledge from the founders only served to give him small bits of information. Thinking quickly, he remembered something about elemental spells Merlin had toyed with, and decided to try it. Casting a wind spell, he caused two of the four chimera to fall from the sky and crash into the grounds. One broke its neck as it plowed into the ground full speed, and the other seemed to have broke its wing. It stayed on the ground, spewing fire and poison at the wards in front of the doors leading to the entrance hall.

The third chimera finally came down due to the sheer number of stunning, impediment, and freezing spells hitting it, and joined the other one the ground, spewing fire and venom as well. The final chimera, however, fell to the wind charm harshly, landing on the Astronomy Tower in front of Harry and the others there. The aurors began casting stunning spells along with a small number of dark curses thrown in once in a while. Harry's eyes narrowed in anger as he drew the sword, impaling the Chimera in the back of the neck, killing it instantly. Knowing it wasn't the time to deal with the auror attitude of battle, Harry turned and took off towards the entrance hall. He needed to kill the monsters gaining access to the grounds, and he needed to disable their leader, the man in the red robe.

Harry reached the Entrance Hall just as the rest of the outer wards around the gates broke, allowing the rest of the enemy onto the grounds. Horace and Ragnok were both there, marshalling the men and goblins into formations in a semicircle around the doors to make it into a funnel, making it more difficult for the monsters to advance through the small space available should they get through the wards.

"Lord Potter, how long can we expect the wards to hold?" Horace asked Harry. To his surprise, Ragnok leaned across to answer for Harry.

"The Hogwarts ancient and blood wards have not been tested for over a thousand years. The new wards that have been being put up by every headmaster, and by the ministry have always been more than enough. Adding the ancient and blood wards to that gives us a very large advantage. I would go as far as to say we may have close to a day before they could actually collapse the wards, as few as they are. We all know though, that wards are only the first defense. Our primary defense is what we can come up with ourselves should the wards fail. Either we need to be ready by the time they break down the wards, or we need an alternate plan of defense." Ragnok said before looking to Harry to see if he may have some ideas in reference to what was just said.

"Well, I know not everyone here can kill. I'm not just talking about the students, it's some of the ministry people as well as the students. I witnessed them trying to stun a chimera that was right in front of them threatening their lives. Its stupid and unfortunately all they've been taught by the former and current administration. They won't be much more use if the castle is breached more than being a warm body able to cast spells. We need to find a way to put a stop to this attack before they finish breaking down the wards." Harry said, before pausing the take a breath. As he stood there thinking as hard and fast as he could, he offhandedly reflected on the fact that he was more flustered and less able to think clearly without Ginny nearby to keep him on track. Knowing she was injured and unconscious upstairs both distracted him, and made him feel better. At least she was safe. Just then, an idea began to take form. Fire spells, wind spells, and curses seemed to be mostly inefficient, but something may yet work.

"Have everyone in the towers begin casting water spells down into the army. Not aguamenti spells either, actual jets of water. Soak them. We only have one chance for this to work." Harry told Horace. Without waiting for a reply, he turned on the spot, creating a hole in the apparition wards for himself. As soon as he apparated where he needed to be, he closed the hole in the wards.

As he had asked, the monster army was drenched in water. While it did serve to put out some of the fires and to slightly irritate the monsters that associated with fire, the more sentient monsters were laughing at the thought of the defenders using water as a weapon. They weren't cats after all! How could a little water hurt? The monsters continued attacking the wards with renewed vigor. That is, until Harry slapped the ground with an open palm. An electrical shockwave hit the enemy, downing them very quickly as their hearts burst. The flying creatures took it particularly hard. Harry collapsed to the ground after pouring most of his flagging strength into the electrical spell.

Looking up he was dismayed to see that while he had disabled or killed most of the army, a large number of the monsters on the ground had survived! Worse, his trick with the electric had succeeded in taking down the strength of the wards immensely. A portion of the remaining army turned towards him and he attempted to open another hole in the wards to allow him to apparate back to safety, but his strength failed him and he collapsed back to the ground as they rushed towards him. One of the unknown creatures managed to slash him with a claw. Just then, the doors opened and all of his allies from the entrance hall spilled out. Most of the work was done quickly by the Goblin Warrior Brigades who were old enough to remember doing battle with most of the creatures present.

The attacking force was completely caught off guard by this tactic, particularly with half of them heading towards Harry with their backs to the doors. They were overwhelmed quickly, with many of the monsters fleeing toward the forest and through the gates. The red robed person that was egging the monsters onward disappeared with a tiny pop as he saw them begin fleeing or being killed outright by the goblins. As the battle was won, Harry's vision blurred and he gave in to the darkness threatening to take over his mind. Horace and Ragnok had a detail pick him up, carrying him straight to the infirmary….

 **St. Mungos Hospital**

 **Lily Potter**

They had appeared silently in the ward where Albus Dumbledore lay after disappearing. Lily had taken one look at her father lying on the bed so still and her hope at the one person that she was sure may be able to help James died. Refusing to give up, she and Sirius had gotten James on a bed next to Albus. While Sirius left to the Ministry, Lily left the ward to gather healers. While she would have preferred to go to the ministry herself, she just had to hope Sirius could actually be serious for once. Sirius was post-humorously declared innocent but it wasn't every day that a dead man who was once accused of murder (even falsely) walked into the Ministry to explain not only his existence, but also that of two other dead people and that there was a major threat the minister needed to know of. Sirius was a Black though, and had cut his teeth on government. Surely _some_ of the stuff his parents had said had sunk in, right? She wasn't too sure anything sunk in when it came to Sirius.

Lily had healers working hard on James, but thus far none of them could determine the curse used on him. It both worried and intrigued the healers in equal parts, putting Lily in an uncomfortable situation. The truth would both confuse the healers, or start a mass panic, and that was only if they believed her. She didn't need any of the above problems and had only intended on telling those who needed or deserved to know the full story. Thinking this, she quickly concocted a story about a duel and a man using an unknown spell on her husband in jealousy over her. After all, they didn't know who she and James were. They had been "dead" for over a decade in the land of the living. While at first there had been some excitement with the healers thinking James was Harry, the absence of the scar quickly deterred them. Also, she had heard Hogwarts was under attack by Tartarus' monsters. Stuck between wanting to meet and help their son, and staying with her father and true husband, she chose to stay. She wasn't sure that meeting Harry in this stressful moment was the right thing to do. It could distract him and cause people to die. Not to mention the time they would need for the inevitable questions and tears that would follow. First, she needed to help James and her father recover, then they could have a family meeting.

Lily sighed at her own deep thoughts and settled into her chair better. As she waited for Sirius to return she was torn between worry for him, James, Harry, and her father. The way worries were piling up, she could almost feel her vibrantly red hair turning grey this very moment. Closing her eyes, she prayed silently to whomever may be listening. _"Please let everything turn out alright. Please let Harry, Sirius, James, my father, and everyone be okay."_

She opened her eyes once more, the vivid green eyes her son was famously known for, reflecting nothing but worry in them, and one single solid tear going down her cheek as she finally let herself begin to grieve for everything that had and is happening…

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Well, as promised, the war has finally come. Everything is in chaos and it is very confusing for those involved. Everyone has to make decisions, for better or worse, and each decision is affecting their future. In the next two chapters we will see Harry and Ginny having their promised conversation, as well as finding out the fate of Hogwarts, the Ministry, and what will happen from here with the war. I will not promise a family reunion next chapter, but I am hopeful for it to happen very soon.**

 **Now, onto personal review replies!**

 **Scrappy8: Thank you for the review! I promise, that conversation is coming, but I have to set up a few things first. His conversation with her is a personal matter, so of course he will put it off until all the real work is done and everyone is relatively safe.**

 **Thank you to Dreous44 and yudhazebba for reviewing.**

 **Nesciamema: Glad to hear you liked that little twist.**

 **Sennybee98: Yes, that takes one burden off his shoulders. As far as Dumbledore goes, remember that he got very sick after the last possession and is in the hospital. He may wake up slightly changed, confused, or totally unexpectedly. I have considered several possibilities with Merlin, obviously a favorite subject of mine, but I have not concretely decided on this subject yet. I am very happy that you enjoyed my approach between Harry and Snape. I, too, thought that the old approached to it, while good, were old hat. I wanted to try something newer. Hope you keep reading and keep enjoying it!**

 **That's it guys! See you next chapter!**


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